The phytohormone forchlorfenuron decreases viability and proliferation of malignant mesothelioma cells in vitro and in vivo.

The phytohormone forchlorfenuron decreases viability and proliferation of malignant mesothelioma cells in vitro and in vivo. Oncotarget. 2019 Dec 10;10(65):6944-6956 Authors: Blum W, Henzi T, Pecze L, Diep KL, Bochet CG, Schwaller B Abstract Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is one of the most aggressive cancer types with a patient's life expectancy of typically less than one year upon diagnosis. The urgency of finding novel therapeutic approaches to treat mesothelioma is evident. Here we tested the effect of the plant-growth regulator forchlorfenuron (FCF), an inhibitor of septin function(s) in mammalian cells, on the viability and proliferation of MM cell lines, as well as other tumor cell lines derived from lung, prostate, colon, ovary, cervix and breast. Exposure to FCF strongly inhibited proliferation of human and mouse (most efficiently epithelioid) MM cells and all other tumor cells in a concentration-dependent manner and led to cell cycle arrest and cell death. The role of septin 7 (SEPT7), a presumably essential target of FCF in MM cells was confirmed by an shRNA strategy. FCF was robustly inhibiting tumor cell growth in vitro at low micromolar (IC50: ≈20-60µM) concentrations and more promisingly also in vivo. Initial experiments with FCF analogous revealed the importance of FCF's chloride group for efficient cell growth inhibition. FCF's rather low systemic toxicity might warrant for an extended search for other related and po...
Source: Oncotarget - Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: Oncotarget Source Type: research