Aimee Flores

Although numerous therapeutic strategies have attempted to target aerobic glycolysis to inhibit tumor progression, these approaches have not resulted in effective clinical outcomes. Murine squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) can be initiated by hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs). HFSCs utilize aerobic glycolysis, and the activity of lactate dehydrogenase (Ldh) is essential for HFSC activation. We sought to determine whether Ldh activity in SCC is critical for tumorigenesis or simply a marker of the cell type of origin. Genetic abrogation or induction of Ldh activity in HFSC-mediated tumorigenesis shows no effect on tumorigenesis as measured by number, time to formation, proliferation, volume, epithelial to mesenchymal transition, gene expression, or immune response. Ldha-null tumors show dramatically reduced levels of glycolytic metabolites by metabolomics, and significantly reduced glucose uptake by FDG-PET live animal imaging. These results suggest that squamous cancer cells of origin do not require increased glycolytic activity to generate cancers.

Herein, we report the synthesis and evaluation of novel analogues of UK-5099 both in vitro and in vivo for the development of mitochondrial pyruvate carrier (MPC) inhibitors to treat hair loss. A comprehensive understanding of the structure–activity relationship was obtained by varying four positions of the hit compound, namely, the alkyl group on the N1 position, substituents on the indole core, various aromatic and heteroaromatic core structures, and various Michael acceptors. The major discovery was that the inhibitors with a 3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)benzyl group at the N1 position were shown to have much better activity than JXL001 (UK-5099) to increase cellular lactate production. Additionally, analogue JXL069, possessing a 7-azaindole heterocycle, was also shown to have significant MPC inhibition activity, which further increases the chemical space for drug design. Finally, more than 10 analogues were tested on shaved mice by topical treatment and promoted obvious hair growth on mice.