ABSTRACT
A novel thiazolopyrimidinone series of PI3K-beta selective inhibitors has been identified. This chemotype has provided an excellent tool compound, 18, that showed potent growth inhibition in the PTEN-deficient breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-468 under anchorage-independent conditions, and it also demonstrated pharmacodynamic effects and efficacy in a PTEN-deficient prostate cancer PC-3 xenograft mouse model.
ABSTRACT
The anthelmintic drug levamisole causes hypercontraction of body wall muscles and lethality in nematode worms. In the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, a genetic screen for levamisole resistance has identified 12 genes, three of which (unc-38, unc-29, and lev-1) encode nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) subunits. Here we describe the molecular and functional characterization of another levamisole-resistant gene, unc-63, encoding a nAChR alpha subunit with a predicted amino acid sequence most similar to that of UNC-38. Like UNC-38 and UNC-29, UNC-63 is expressed in body wall muscles. In addition, UNC-63 is expressed in vulval muscles and neurons. We also show that LEV-1 is expressed in body wall muscle, thus overlapping the cellular localization of UNC-63, UNC-38, and UNC-29 and suggesting possible association in vivo. This is supported by electrophysiological studies on body wall muscle, which demonstrate that a levamisole-sensitive nAChR present at the C. elegans neuromuscular junction requires both UNC-63 and LEV-1 subunits. Thus, at least four subunits, two alpha types (UNC-38 and UNC-63) and two non-alpha types (UNC-29 and LEV-1), can contribute to levamisole-sensitive muscle nAChRs in nematodes.
