ABSTRACT
In the past, several microtubule targeting agents (MTAs) have been developed into successful anticancer drugs. However, the usage of these drugs has been limited by the acquisition of drug resistance in many cancers. Therefore, there is a constant demand for the development of new therapeutic drugs. Here we report the discovery of 5-5 (3-cchlorophenyl)-N-(3-pyridinyl)-2-furamide (CPPF), a novel microtubule targeting anticancer agent. Using both 2D and 3D culture systems, we showed that CPPF was able to suppress the proliferation of diverse cancer cell lines. In addition, CPPF was able to inhibit the growth of multidrug-resistant cell lines that are resistant to other MTAs, such as paclitaxel and colchicine. Our results showed that CPPF inhibited growth by depolymerizing microtubules leading to mitotic arrest and apoptosis. We also confirmed CPPF anticancer effects in vivo using both a mouse xenograft and a two-step skin cancer mouse model. Using established zebrafish models, we showed that CPPF has low toxicity in vivo. Overall, our study proves that CPPF has the potential to become a successful anticancer chemotherapeutic drug.
Subject(s)
Antineoplastic Agents/pharmacology , Cell Proliferation/drug effects , Microtubules/metabolism , Neoplasms/drug therapy , A549 Cells , Animals , Apoptosis/drug effects , Cell Cycle Checkpoints/drug effects , Cell Line, Tumor , Colchicine/pharmacology , Drug Resistance, Multiple/drug effects , Drug Resistance, Neoplasm/drug effects , Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor/methods , HeLa Cells , Hep G2 Cells , Humans , Jurkat Cells , K562 Cells , MCF-7 Cells , Male , Mice , Mitosis/drug effects , Neoplasms/metabolism , PC-3 Cells , Paclitaxel/pharmacology , U937 Cells , Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays/methods , ZebrafishABSTRACT
STK295900, a small synthetic molecule belonging to a class of symmetric bibenzimidazoles, exhibits antiproliferative activity against various human cancer cell lines from different origins. Examining the effect of STK295900 in HeLa cells indicates that it induces G(2) phase arrest without invoking DNA damage. Further analysis shows that STK295900 inhibits DNA relaxation that is mediated by topoisomerase 1 (Top 1) and topoisomerase 2 (Top 2) in vitro. In addition, STK295900 also exhibits protective effect against DNA damage induced by camptothecin. However, STK295900 does not affect etoposide-induced DNA damage. Moreover, STK295900 preferentially exerts cytotoxic effect on cancer cell lines while camptothecin, etoposide, and Hoechst 33342 affected both cancer and normal cells. Therefore, STK295900 has a potential to be developed as an anticancer chemotherapeutic agent.
