Screening a small hydrazide-hydrazone combinatorial library for targeting the STAT3 in monocyte-macrophages with insulated reporter transposons

Abstract

The Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 3 (STAT3) pharmacological targeting is regarded as a prospective approach to treat cancer, autoimmune disorders, or inflammatory diseases. We have developed a series of reporters of the STAT3, NF-κB, Nrf2, metal-responsive transcription factor-1 (MTF-1), and hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) transcriptional activation in human monocyte-macrophage line THP-1. The reporter lines were employed to test a set of hydrazide-hydrazones as potential STAT3 inhibitors. A hydrazide-hydrazone library composed of 70 binary combinations of 7 carbonyl and 10 hydrazide components, including a STAT3 inhibitor clinical drug nifuroxazide, has been assembled and screened by the reporters. For the library as a whole, significant correlations between responses of the STAT3 and NF-κB or the STAT3 and HIF-1α reporters in THP-1 monocytes were found. For selected inhibitory combinations, respective hydrazide-hydrazones have been prepared and tested individually. The most potent 2-acetylpyridine 4-chlorobenzoylhydrazone exhibited the STAT3 inhibitory potential significantly exceeding that of nifuroxazide (ED 50 2 vs 50 μM respectively) in THP-1 cells. We conclude that insulated reporter transposons could be a useful tool for drug discovery applications. Graphical Abstract

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