Biochem/physiol Actions

BAY 87-2243 has a therapeutic effect on ferroptosis‐based cancer, hypoxic pancreatic cancer cells.

BAY 87-2243 is an orally active oxidative phosphorylation (OxPhos) inhibitor that potently suppresses hypoxia-induced HIF-1 activation (IC50 = 0.7 nM by HCT-116-based reporter assay; 24 h 1% O₂) by selectively targeting mitochondrial complex I (IC50 = 10 nM using mitochondria from PC3; no inhibition of complex III), exhibiting antiproliferation activity in cancer cultures only in the absence of glucose (IC50 ~3 nM in H460 cultures with 10 mM galactose or lactate, >10 µM with 10 mM glucose). BAY 87-2243 selectively inhibits hypoxia-induced, but not hypoxia-independent, HIF-1α & HIF-2α upregulation and HIF-1 target genes expression in cultures (IC50 ≤10 nM/ADM, ANGPTL4, CA9 mRNA in H460 cells; IC50 = 2 nM/carbonic anhydrase 9 (CA9) protein in HCT116 cells) and effectively suppresses H460 xenograft tumor growth in mice via daily oral admiminstration in vivo (ED50 ~2 mg/kg).