Abstract

Increasing evidence suggests the pivotal role of hematopoietic pre-B-cell leukemia transcription factor (PBX)-interacting protein (HPIP/PBXIP1) in cancer development and progression, indicating that HPIP inhibition may be a promising target for cancer therapy. Here, we screened compounds inhibiting breast cancer cell proliferation with HPIP fused with green fluorescent protein as a reporter. A novel agent named TXX-1-10 derived from rimonabant, an antagonist of cannabinoid receptor 1 with anticancer effects, has been discovered to reduce HPIP expression and has greater inhibitory effects on breast cancer cell growth and metastasis in vitro and in vivo than rimonabant. TXX-1-10 regulates HPIP downstream targets, including several important kinases involved in cancer development and progression (e.g., AKT, ERK1/2, and FAK) as well as cell cycle-, apoptosis-, migration-, and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related genes. Consistent with the results of anticancer effects, genome-wide RNA sequencing indicated that TXX-1-10 has more significant effects on regulation of the expression of genes related to DNA replication, cell cycle, apoptosis, cell adhesion, cell migration, and invasion than rimonabant. In addition, TXX-1-10 significantly regulated genes associated with the cell growth and extracellular matrix organization, many of which were shown to be regulated by HPIP. Moreover, compared with rimonabant, TXX-1-10 greatly reduces blood-brain barrier penetrability to avoid adverse central depressive effects. These findings suggest that HPIP inhibition may be a useful strategy for cancer treatment and TXX-1-10 is a promising candidate drug for cancer therapy.

By Pengyun Li, Shengjie Cao, Yubing Huang, Yanan Zhang, Jie Liu, Xu Cai, Lulu Zhou, Jianbin Li, Zefei Jiang, Lihua Ding, Zhibing Zheng, Song Li & Qinong Ye