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Feng Y, Li T, Lin Z, Li Y, Han X, Pei X, Fu Z, Wu Q, Shao D, Li C. Inhibition of Polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) triggers cell apoptosis via ROS-caused mitochondrial dysfunction in colorectal carcinoma. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 2023; 149:6883-6899. [PMID: 36810816 DOI: 10.1007/s00432-023-04624-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2022] [Accepted: 01/27/2023] [Indexed: 02/24/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most frequently diagnosed cancers. Polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1), a member of the serine/threonine kinase PLK family, is the most investigated and essential in the regulation of cell cycle progression, including chromosome segregation, centrosome maturation and cytokinesis. However, the nonmitotic role of PLK1 in CRC is poorly understood. In this study, we explored the tumorigenic effects of PLK1 and its potential as a therapeutic target in CRC. METHODS GEPIA database and immunohistochemistry analysis were performed to evaluate the abnormal expression of PLK1 in CRC patients. MTT assay, colony formation and transwell assay were performed to assess cell viability, colony formation ability and migration ability after inhibiting PLK1 by RNAi or the small molecule inhibitor BI6727. Cell apoptosis, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) and ROS levels were evaluated by flow cytometry. Bioluminescence imaging was performed to evaluate the impact of PLK1 on CRC cell survival in a preclinical model. Finally, xenograft tumor model was established to study the effect of PLK1 inhibition on tumor growth. RESULTS First, immunohistochemistry analysis revealed the significant accumulation of PLK1 in patient-derived CRC tissues compared with adjacent healthy tissues. Furthermore, PLK1 inhibition genetically or pharmacologically significantly reduced cell viability, migration and colony formation, and triggered apoptosis of CRC cells. Additionally, we found that PLK1 inhibition elevated cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation and decreased the Bcl2/Bax ratio, which led to mitochondrial dysfunction and the release of Cytochrome c, a key process in initiating cell apoptosis. CONCLUSION These data provide new insights into the pathogenesis of CRC and support the potential value of PLK1 as an appealing target for CRC treatment. Overall, the underlying mechanism of inhibiting PLK1-induced apoptosis indicates that the PLK1 inhibitor BI6727 may be a novel potential therapeutic strategy in the treatment of CRC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ya Feng
- State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology and College of Pharmacy, Nankai University, No. 38 Tongyan Road, Jinnan District, Tianjin, 300350, People's Republic of China
| | - Tianjiao Li
- State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology and College of Pharmacy, Nankai University, No. 38 Tongyan Road, Jinnan District, Tianjin, 300350, People's Republic of China
| | - Zhoujun Lin
- State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology and College of Pharmacy, Nankai University, No. 38 Tongyan Road, Jinnan District, Tianjin, 300350, People's Republic of China
| | - Yin Li
- State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology and College of Pharmacy, Nankai University, No. 38 Tongyan Road, Jinnan District, Tianjin, 300350, People's Republic of China
| | - Xiao Han
- State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology and College of Pharmacy, Nankai University, No. 38 Tongyan Road, Jinnan District, Tianjin, 300350, People's Republic of China
| | - Xiaolin Pei
- State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology and College of Pharmacy, Nankai University, No. 38 Tongyan Road, Jinnan District, Tianjin, 300350, People's Republic of China
| | - Zhenkun Fu
- State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology and College of Pharmacy, Nankai University, No. 38 Tongyan Road, Jinnan District, Tianjin, 300350, People's Republic of China
- Department of Immunology & Wu Lien-Teh Institute & Heilongjiang Provincial Key Laboratory for Infection and Immunity, Harbin Medical University & Heilongjiang Academy of Medical Science, Harbin, 150081, People's Republic of China
| | - Qiao Wu
- Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Beijing Chao Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 10020, People's Republic of China
| | - Di Shao
- Chongqing Emergency Medical Center, Chongqing University Central Hospital, No. 1 Health Road, Yuzhong District, Chongqing, 400014, People's Republic of China.
| | - Chenggang Li
- State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology and College of Pharmacy, Nankai University, No. 38 Tongyan Road, Jinnan District, Tianjin, 300350, People's Republic of China.
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ElHarouni D, Berker Y, Peterziel H, Gopisetty A, Turunen L, Kreth S, Stainczyk SA, Oehme I, Pietiäinen V, Jäger N, Witt O, Schlesner M, Oppermann S. iTReX: Interactive exploration of mono- and combination therapy dose response profiling data. Pharmacol Res 2021; 175:105996. [PMID: 34848323 DOI: 10.1016/j.phrs.2021.105996] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2021] [Revised: 11/18/2021] [Accepted: 11/19/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
High throughput screening methods, measuring the sensitivity and resistance of tumor cells to drug treatments have been rapidly evolving. Not only do these screens allow correlating response profiles to tumor genomic features for developing novel predictors of treatment response, but they can also add evidence for therapy decision making in precision oncology. Recent analysis methods developed for either assessing single agents or combination drug efficacies enable quantification of dose-response curves with restricted symmetric fit settings. Here, we introduce iTReX, a user-friendly and interactive Shiny/R application, for both the analysis of mono- and combination therapy responses. The application features an extended version of the drug sensitivity score (DSS) based on the integral of an advanced five-parameter dose-response curve model and a differential DSS for combination therapy profiling. Additionally, iTReX includes modules that visualize drug target interaction networks and support the detection of matches between top therapy hits and the sample omics features to enable the identification of druggable targets and biomarkers. iTReX enables the analysis of various quantitative drug or therapy response readouts (e.g. luminescence, fluorescence microscopy) and multiple treatment strategies (drug treatments, radiation). Using iTReX we validate a cost-effective drug combination screening approach and reveal the application's ability to identify potential sample-specific biomarkers based on drug target interaction networks. The iTReX web application is accessible at https://itrex.kitz-heidelberg.de.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dina ElHarouni
- Bioinformatics and Omics Data Analytics, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany; Hopp Children's Cancer Center (KiTZ), Heidelberg, Germany; Division of Pediatric Neurooncology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Heidelberg, Germany; Faculty of Biosciences, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Yannick Berker
- Hopp Children's Cancer Center (KiTZ), Heidelberg, Germany; Clinical Cooperation Unit Pediatric Oncology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Heike Peterziel
- Hopp Children's Cancer Center (KiTZ), Heidelberg, Germany; Clinical Cooperation Unit Pediatric Oncology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Apurva Gopisetty
- Hopp Children's Cancer Center (KiTZ), Heidelberg, Germany; Division of Pediatric Neurooncology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Laura Turunen
- Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), Helsinki Institute of Life Science (HiLIFE), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Sina Kreth
- Hopp Children's Cancer Center (KiTZ), Heidelberg, Germany; Division of Neuroblastoma Genomics, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Sabine A Stainczyk
- Hopp Children's Cancer Center (KiTZ), Heidelberg, Germany; Division of Neuroblastoma Genomics, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Ina Oehme
- Hopp Children's Cancer Center (KiTZ), Heidelberg, Germany; Clinical Cooperation Unit Pediatric Oncology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Vilja Pietiäinen
- Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), Helsinki Institute of Life Science (HiLIFE), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Natalie Jäger
- Hopp Children's Cancer Center (KiTZ), Heidelberg, Germany; Division of Pediatric Neurooncology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Olaf Witt
- Hopp Children's Cancer Center (KiTZ), Heidelberg, Germany; Clinical Cooperation Unit Pediatric Oncology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Heidelberg, Germany; Department of Pediatric Oncology, Hematology, Immunology and Pulmonology Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Matthias Schlesner
- Bioinformatics and Omics Data Analytics, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany; Biomedical Informatics, Data Mining and Data Analytics, Faculty of Applied Computer Science and Medical Faculty, University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany
| | - Sina Oppermann
- Hopp Children's Cancer Center (KiTZ), Heidelberg, Germany; Clinical Cooperation Unit Pediatric Oncology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Heidelberg, Germany
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Nunes PSG, da Silva G, Nascimento S, Mantoani SP, de Andrade P, Bernardes ES, Kawano DF, Leopoldino AM, Carvalho I. Synthesis, biological evaluation and molecular docking studies of novel 1,2,3-triazole-quinazolines as antiproliferative agents displaying ERK inhibitory activity. Bioorg Chem 2021; 113:104982. [PMID: 34020277 DOI: 10.1016/j.bioorg.2021.104982] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/06/2021] [Revised: 04/23/2021] [Accepted: 05/05/2021] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
ERK1/2 inhibitors have attracted special attention concerning the ability of circumventing cases of innate or log-term acquired resistance to RAF and MEK kinase inhibitors. Based on the 4-aminoquinazoline pharmacophore of kinases, herein we describe the synthesis of 4-aminoquinazoline derivatives bearing a 1,2,3-triazole stable core to bridge different aromatic and heterocyclic rings using copper-catalysed azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction (CuAAC) as a Click Chemistry strategy. The initial screening of twelve derivatives in tumoral cells (CAL-27, HN13, HGC-27, and BT-20) revealed that the most active in BT-20 cells (25a, IC50 24.6 μM and a SI of 3.25) contains a more polar side chain (sulfone). Furthermore, compound 25a promoted a significant release of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), suggesting the induction of cell death by necrosis. In addition, this compound induced G0/G1 stalling in BT-20 cells, which was accompanied by a decrease in the S phase. Western blot analysis of the levels of p-STAT3, p-ERK, PARP, p53 and cleaved caspase-3 revealed p-ERK1/2 and p-STA3 were drastically decreased in BT-20 cells under 25a incubation, suggesting the involvement of these two kinases in the mechanisms underlying 25a-induced cell cycle arrest, besides loss of proliferation and viability of the breast cancer cell. Molecular docking simulations using the ERK-ulixertinib crystallographic complex showed compound 25a could potentially compete with ATP for binding to ERK in a slightly higher affinity than the reference ERK1/2 inhibitor. Further in silico analyses showed comparable toxicity and pharmacokinetic profiles for compound 25a in relation to ulixertinib.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Gabriel da Silva
- Department of Clinical Analyses, Toxicology and Food Sciences, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Sofia Nascimento
- Radiopharmacy Center, Nuclear and Energy Research Institute (IPEN/CNEN-SP), São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | | | - Peterson de Andrade
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Emerson Soares Bernardes
- Radiopharmacy Center, Nuclear and Energy Research Institute (IPEN/CNEN-SP), São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Daniel Fábio Kawano
- Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Andreia Machado Leopoldino
- Department of Clinical Analyses, Toxicology and Food Sciences, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Ivone Carvalho
- School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil.
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