Novel synthetic bisindolylmaleimide alkaloids inhibit STAT3 activation by binding to the SH2 domain and suppress breast xenograft tumor growth
作者:Xia Li、Hongguang Ma、Lin Li、Yifan Chen、Xiao Sun、Zizheng Dong、Jing-Yuan Liu、Weiming Zhu、Jian-Ting Zhang
DOI:10.1038/s41388-017-0076-0
日期:2018.5
Signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) is constitutively activated in malignant tumors and plays important roles in multiple aspects of cancer aggressiveness. Thus, targeting STAT3 promises to be an attractive strategy for the treatment of advanced metastatic tumors. Bisindolylmaleimide alkaloid (BMA) has been shown to have anti-cancer activities and was thought to suppress tumor cell growth by inhibiting protein kinase C. In this study, we show that a newly synthesized BMA analog, BMA097, is effective in suppressing tumor cell and xenograft growth and in inducing spontaneous apoptosis. We also provide evidence that BMA097 binds directly to the SH2 domain of STAT3 and inhibits STAT3 phosphorylation and activation, leading to reduced expression of STAT3 downstream target genes. Structure activity relationship analysis revealed that the hydroxymethyl group in the 2,5-dihydropyrrole-2,5-dione prohibits STAT3 inhibitory activity of BMA analogs. Altogether, we conclude that the synthetic BMA analogs may be developed as anti-cancer drugs by targeting and binding to the SH2 domain of STAT3 and inhibiting the STAT3 signaling pathway.
信号转导和转录激活因子3(STAT3)在恶性肿瘤中始终处于活化状态,并在癌症侵袭性的多个方面发挥重要作用。因此,靶向STAT3被认为是治疗晚期转移性肿瘤的一个有吸引力的策略。双吲哚马来酰亚胺生物碱(BMA)已被证明具有抗癌活性,并被认为通过抑制蛋白激酶C来抑制肿瘤细胞生长。在本研究中,我们展示了一种新合成的BMA类似物BMA097在抑制肿瘤细胞和异种移植生长以及诱导自发凋亡方面的有效性。我们还提供了证据表明BMA097直接结合STAT3的SH2域,抑制STAT3的磷酸化和激活,从而减少STAT3下游靶基因的表达。结构活性关系分析显示,2,5-二氢吡咯-2,5-二酮中的羟甲基基团阻碍了BMA类似物的STAT3抑制活性。总之,我们得出结论,合成的BMA类似物可以通过靶向并结合STAT3的SH2域抑制STAT3信号通路,从而作为抗癌药物进行开发。