Discovery of Novel Potent Covalent Glutathione Peroxidase 4 Inhibitors as Highly Selective Ferroptosis Inducers for the Treatment of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.

Glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) is a promising target to induce ferroptosis for the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). We designed and synthesized a novel series of covalent GPX4 inhibitors based on RSL3 and ML162 by structural integration and simplification strategies. Among them, compound revealed a remarkable inhibitory activity against TNBC cells and significantly inhibited the activity of GPX4 compared to RSL3 and ML162. Moreover, it was identified that could notably induce ferroptosis with high selectivity by increasing the accumulation of lipid peroxides (LPOs) in cells. Further study demonstrated that covalently bound to the Sec46 of GPX4. Surprisingly, exhibited an outstanding potency of tumor growth inhibition in the MDA-MB-231 xenograft model with a TGI value of 81.0%@20 mg/kg without obvious toxicity. Overall, could be a promising GPX4 covalent inhibitor to induce ferroptosis for the treatment of TNBC.