HCS Campaign to Identify Selective Inhibitors of IL-6-Induced STAT3 Pathway Activation in Head and Neck Cancer Cell Lines

Signal transducer and activator of transcription factor 3 (STAT3) is hyperactivated in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC). Cumulative evidence indicates that IL-6 production by HNSCC cells and/or stromal cells in the tumor microenvironment activates STAT3 and contributes to tumor progression and drug resistance. A library of 94,491 compounds from the Molecular Library Screening Center Network (MLSCN) was screened for the ability to inhibit interleukin-6 (IL-6)-induced pSTAT3 activation. For contractual reasons, the primary high-content screening (HCS) campaign was conducted over several months in 3 distinct phases; 1,068 (1.1%) primary HCS actives remained after cytotoxic or fluorescent outliers were eliminated. One thousand one hundred eighty-seven compounds were cherry-picked for confirmation; actives identified in the primary HCS and compounds selected by a structural similarity search of the remaining MLSCN library using hits identified in phases I and II of the screen. Actives were confirmed in pSTAT3 IC50 assays, and an IFN gamma-induced pSTAT1 activation assay was used to prioritize selective inhibitors of STAT3 activation that would not inhibit STAT1 tumor suppressor functions. Two hundred three concentration-dependent inhibitors of IL-6-induced pSTAT3 activation were identified and 89 of these also produced IC(50)s against IFN-gamma-induced pSTAT1 activation. Forty-nine compounds met our hit criteria: they reproducibly inhibited IL-6-induced pSTAT3 activation by >= 70% at 20 mu M; their pSTAT3 activation IC(50)s were <= 25 mu M; they were >= 2-fold selective for pSTAT3 inhibition over pSTAT1 inhibition; a cross target query of PubChem indicated that they were not biologically promiscuous; and they were >= 90% pure. Twenty-six chemically tractable hits that passed filters for nuisance compounds and had acceptable drug-like and ADME-Tox properties by computational evaluation were purchased for characterization. The hit structures were distributed among 5 clusters and 8 singletons. Twenty-four compounds inhibited IL-6-induced pSTAT3 activation with IC(50)s <= 20 mu M and 13 were >= 3-fold selective versus inhibition of pSTAT1 activation. Eighteen hits inhibited the growth of HNSCC cell lines with average IC(50)s <= 20 mu M. Four chemical series were progressed into lead optimization: the guanidinoquinazolines, the triazolothiadiazines, the amino alcohols, and an oxazole-piperazine singleton.