A small-molecule pan-class I glucose transporter inhibitor reduces cancer cell proliferation in vitro and tumor growth in vivo by targeting glucose-based metabolism

BACKGROUND: Cancer cells drastically increase the uptake of glucose and glucose metabolism by overexpressing class I glucose transporters (GLUT1-4) to meet their energy and biomass synthesis needs and are very sensitive and vulnerable to glucose deprivation. Although targeting glucose uptake via GLUTs has been an attractive anticancer strategy, the relative anticancer efficacy of multi-GLUT targeting or single GLUT targeting is unclear. Here, we report DRB18, a synthetic small molecule, is a potent anticancer compound whose pan-class I GLUT inhibition is superior to single GLUT targeting. METHODS: Glucose uptake and MTT/resazurin assays were used to measure DRB18’s inhibitory activities of glucose transport and cell viability/proliferation in human lung cancer and other cancer cell lines. Four HEK293 cell lines expressing GLUT1-4 individually were used to determine the IC(50) values of DRB18’s inhibitory activity of glucose transport. Docking studies were performed to investigate the potential direct interaction of DRB18 with GLUT1-4. Metabolomics analysis was performed to identify metabolite changes in A549 lung cancer cells treated with DRB18. DRB18 was used to treat A549 tumor-bearing nude mice. The GLUT1 gene was knocked out to determine how the KO of the gene affected tumor growth. RESULTS: DRB18 reduced glucose uptake mediated via each of GLUT1-4 with different IC(50)s, which match with the docking glidescores with a correlation coefficient of 0.858. Metabolomics analysis revealed that DRB18 altered energy-related metabolism in A549 cells by changing the abundance of metabolites in glucose-related pathways in vitro and in vivo. DRB18 eventually led to G1/S phase arrest and increased oxidative stress and necrotic cell death. IP injection of DRB18 in A549 tumor-bearing nude mice at 10 mg/kg body weight thrice a week led to a significant reduction in the tumor volume compared with mock-treated tumors. In contrast, the knockout of the GLUT1 gene did not reduce tumor volume. CONCLUSIONS: DRB18 is a potent pan-class I GLUT inhibitor in vitro and in vivo in cancer cells. Mechanistically, it is likely to bind the outward open conformation of GLUT1-4, reducing tumor growth through inhibiting GLUT1-4-mediated glucose transport and metabolisms. Pan-class I GLUT inhibition is a better strategy than single GLUT targeting for inhibiting tumor growth. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40170-021-00248-7.