A Model for NAD(P)H:Quinoneoxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) Targeted Individualized Cancer Chemotherapy

NQO1 (NAD(P)H:quinoneoxidoreductase 1) is a reductive enzyme that is an important activator of bioreductive antitumor agents. NQO1 activity varies in individual tumors but is generally higher in tumor cells than in normal cells. NQO1 has been used as a target for tumor specific drug development. We investigated a series of bioreductive benzoquinone mustard analogs as a model for NQO1 targeted individualized cancer chemotherapy. We compared the tumor cell growth inhibitory activity of benzoquinone mustard analogs with sterically bulky groups of different size and placed at different positions on the benzoquinone ring, using tumor cell lines with different levels of NQO1. We demonstrated that functional groups of different steric size could be used to produce a series of bioreductive antitumor agents that were activated by different levels of NQO1 in tumor cells. This series of drugs could then be used to target cells with specific levels of NQO1 for growth inhibition and to avoid damage to normal cells, like bone marrow cells, that have low levels of NQO1. This approach could be used to develop new bioreductive antitumor agents for NQO1 targeted individualized cancer chemotherapy

1,3-Benzothia­zole-2(3H)-selone

The title compound, C7H5NSSe, is the product of the reaction of 2-chloro­benzothia­zole with sodium hydro­selenide. The mol­ecule is almost planar (r.m.s. deviation = 0.018 Å) owing to the presence of the long chain of conjugated bonds (Se=C—N—C=C—C=C—C=C). The geometrical parameters correspond well to those of the analog N-methyl­benzothia­zole-2(3H)-selone, demonstrating that the S atom does not take a significant role in the electron delocalization within the mol­ecule. In the crystal, mol­ecules form centrosymmetric dimers by means of inter­molecular N—H⋯Se hydrogen bonds. The dimers have a nonplanar ladder-like structure. Furthermore, the dimers are linked into ribbons propagating in [010] by weak attractive Se⋯S [3.7593 (4) Å] inter­actions