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MedChemComm
effective. There is substantial evidence to indicate that SK1 has
an essential role on regulating cell growth and survival.2 For
9 K. G. Lim, S. Chaode, R. Bittman, N. J. Pyne and S. Pyne, Cell.
Signalling, 2011, 23, 1590.
instance, siRNA knockdown of SK1 has been shown to induce 10 K. J. French, Y. Zhuang, L. W. Maines, P. Gao, W. Wang,
ceramide-stimulated apoptosis of MCF-7 breast cancer cells.27
V. Beljanski, J. J. Upson, C. L. Green, S. N. Keller and
Therefore, while PF-543 and VPC96091 are more effective
C. D. Smith, J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther., 2010, 333, 129.
inhibitors of SK1 compared with 55-21, this enhanced binding 11 K. Liu, T. L. Guo, N. C. Hait, J. Allegood, H. I. Parikh, W. Xu,
affinity might result in a lack of specicity toward other
enzymes that can bind sphingosine-based compounds, such as
G. E. Kellogg, S. Grant, S. Spiegel and S. Zhang, PLoS One,
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ceramide synthases. This might effectively negate the effect of 12 W. D. Jarvis, F. A. Fornari Jr, R. S. Traylor, H. A. Martin,
inhibiting SK1 activity on cell growth and survival by preventing
formation of ceramide from sphingosine that has accumulated
L. B. Kramer, R. K. Erukulla, R. Bittman and S. Grant,
J. Biol. Chem., 1996, 271, 8275.
as a result of inhibiting SK1 activity. Indeed, PF-543 fails to 13 M. A. Dickson, R. D. Carvajal, A. H. Merrill Jr, M. Gonen,
increase endogenous ceramide levels in head and neck 1483
carcinoma cells, where it lacks cytotoxicity.24 The novel
L. M. Cane and G. K. Schwartz, Clin. Cancer Res., 2011, 17,
2484.
compounds identied here, e.g. 55-21, have moderate potency, 14 J. M. Soriano, L. Gonzales and A. I. Catala, Prog. Lipid Res.,
which might represent a more favorable prole in terms of 2005, 44, 345.
selectively abrogating SK1 function without exhibiting ‘off- 15 C. Massard, R. Salazar, J. P. Armand, M. Majem, E. Deutsch,
´
´
´
target’ effects on sphingosine/ceramide metabolizing enzymes.
In this regard, 55-21 recapitulates siRNA knockdown and
M. Garcıa, A. Oaknin, E. M. Fernandez-Garcıa, A. Soto and
J. C. Soria, Invest. New Drugs, 2012, 30, 2318.
genetic studies in terms of reducing cell growth; thus 55-21 is 16 H. Symolon, A. Bushnev, Q. Peng, H. Ramaraju, S. G. Mays,
expected to have utility in unraveling the functions of SK1 in
inammatory and hyperproliferative disorders. With the recent
elucidation of the atomic structure of SK1,28 it may be possible
J. C. Allegood, S. T. Pruett, M. C. Sullards, D. L. Dillehay,
D. C. Liotta and A. H. Merrill Jr, Mol. Cancer Ther., 2011,
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to dene the binding modalities of these inhibitors in the future 17 H. Stockmann-Juvala and K. Savolainen, Hum. Exp. Toxicol.,
and to optimize the structures of novel inhibitors to achieve
higher potency and selectivity.
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18 C. R. Johnson, J. Chun, R. Bittman and W. D. Jarvis,
J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther., 2004, 309, 452.
19 Stereoisomers of 4-amino-2-tetradecyltetrahydrofuran-3-ol
(pachastrissamines) are inhibitors of SK and protein
kinase C; see: Y. Yoshimitsu, S. Oishi, J. Miyagaki, S. Inuki,
H. Ohno and N. Fujii, Bioorg. Med. Chem., 2011, 19, 5402.
20 L. He, H.-S. Byun and R. Bittman, J. Org. Chem., 2000, 65,
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by a British Heart Foundation grant
(29476) to NJP/SP and by NIH Grant HL-083187 to RB. We thank
Dr Dong Jae Baek for preparing VPC96091.
21 C. I. Hong, A. Nechaev, A. J. Kirisits, R. Vig, S.-W. Hui and
C. R. West, J. Med. Chem., 1995, 38, 1629.
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This journal is ª The Royal Society of Chemistry 2013
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