Pancreatic cancer is a highly malignant cancer and lacks effective therapeutic targets. Protein-tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B), a validated therapeutic target for diabetes and obesity, also plays a critical positive or negative role in tumorigenesis. However, the role of PTP1B in pancreatic cancer remains elusive. Here, we initially demonstrated that PTP1B was highly expressed in pancreatic tumors, and was positively correlated with distant metastasis and tumor staging, and indicated poor survival. Then, inhibition of PTP1B either by shRNA or by a specific small-molecule inhibitor significantly suppressed pancreatic cancer cell growth, migration and colony formation with cell cycle arrest in vitro and inhibited pancreatic cancer progression in vivo. Mechanism studies revealed that PTP1B targeted the PKM2/AMPK/mTOC1 signaling pathway to regulate cell growth. PTP1B inhibition directly increased PKM2 Tyr-105 phosphorylation to further result in significant activation of AMPK, which decreased mTOC1 activity and led to inhibition of p70S6K. Meanwhile, the decreased phosphorylation of PRAS40 caused by decreased PKM2 activity also helped to inhibit mTOC1. Collectively, these findings support the notion of PTP1B as an oncogene and a promising therapeutic target for PDAC.

Diabetes mellitus, which includes both type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), is a major disease that threatens human health worldwide. Protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) is a promising molecular-level therapeutic target that is effective in the management of T2DM. Natural products with various skeletons and diverse bioactivities offer opportunities for the development of new drugs and lead compounds with potent inhibitory activity against PTP1B in vitro and in vivo. Recently, a number of potent PTP1B inhibitors have been obtained from natural sources or prepared by synthesis/semi-synthesis, and they exhibit potential for the treatment of T2DM. In this review, we discuss the development of potent natural and semisynthetic PTP1B inhibitors with IC₅₀ values under 10 μM over the past six years (2009–2014), including their structural features, biological features, structure–activity relationships (SARs). We also discuss strategies for identifying potent PTP1B inhibitors from natural products to provide useful information for use by medicinal chemists in developing potent PTP1B inhibitors as T2DM treatments.

Fluorine chemistry plays an increasingly important role in pharmaceutical, agricultural, and materials industries. The incorporation of fluorine-containing groups into organic molecules can improve their chemical and physical properties, which attracts continuous interest in organic synthesis. Among various reported methods, transition-metal-catalyzed fluorination/fluoroalkylation has emerged as a powerful method for the construction of these compounds. This review attempts to describe the major advances in the transition-metal-catalyzed incorporation of fluorine, trifluoromethyl, difluoromethyl, trifluoromethylthio, and trifluoromethoxy groups reported between 2011 and 2019.