Evaluation on the inhibition of pyrrol-2-yl ethanone derivatives to lactate dehydrogenase and anticancer activities

•LDH-A inhibitor were assayed by spectroscopic analysis.•The fluorescence titration revealed the affinity interaction for compounds to LDH-A•The change of conformation of LDHA- was investigated by CD spectra.•A bifunctional anticancer compound was reported.

Lactate dehydrogenase A (LDH-A) is a potentially important metabolic target for the inhibition of the highly activated glycolysis pathway in cancer cells. In order to develop bifunctional compounds as inhibitor of LDH-A and anticancer agents, two pyrrol-2-yl methanone (or ethanone) derivatives (PM1 and PM2) were synthesized and evaluated as inhibitors of LDH-A based on the enzyme assay and cell assay by spectroscopy analysis. Fluorescence and CD spectra results demonstrated that both the change of second structure of LDH-A and the affinity interaction for compounds to LDH-A gave great effect on the activity of LDH-A. In particular, low concentration of compounds (1 μμ–25 μμ) could change the level of pyruvate in cancer cells. Moreover, the in vitro assay results demonstrated that pyrrol-2-yl ethanone derivatives can inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells. Therefore, pyrrol-2-yl ethanone derivatives (PM2) can be both LDH-A inhibitor and anticancer agents.

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