Yang Jun, Huang Wenjing, Tan Wenfu
Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Fudan University, 826 Zhangheng Road, Shanghai 201203, China.
Molecules. 2016 Oct 14;21(10):1364. doi: 10.3390/molecules21101364.
The major obstacle limiting the efficacy of current Smoothened (Smo) inhibitors is the primary and acquired resistance mainly caused by Smo mutations and Gli amplification. In this context, developing Hh inhibitors targeting Gli, the final effector of this signaling pathway, may combat the resistance. In this study we found that solasonine, a natural glycoalkaloid compound, significantly inhibited the hedgehog (Hh) pathway activity. Meanwhile, solasonine may obviously inhibit the alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity in C3H10T1/2 cells, concomitantly with reductions of the mRNA expression of and . However, we found that solasonine exhibited no effect on the transcriptional factors activities provoked by TNF-α and PGE2, thus suggesting its selectivity against Hh pathway activity. Furthermore, we identified that solasonine inhibited the Hh pathway activity by acting on its transcriptional factor Gli using a series of complementary data. We also observed that solasonine obviously inhibited the Gli-luciferase activity provoked by ectopic expression of Smo mutants which may cause the resistance to the current Smo inhibitors. Our study suggests that solasonine may significantly inhibit the Hh pathway activity by acting on Gli, therefore indicating the possibility to use solasonine as a lead compound to develop anticancer drugs for combating the resistance of current Smo inhibitors.
限制当前 smoothened(Smo)抑制剂疗效的主要障碍是主要由 Smo 突变和 Gli 扩增引起的原发性和获得性耐药。在此背景下,开发靶向 Gli(该信号通路的最终效应器)的 Hh 抑制剂可能对抗耐药性。在本研究中,我们发现茄解碱(一种天然糖生物碱化合物)显著抑制刺猬信号(Hh)通路活性。同时,茄解碱可能明显抑制 C3H10T1/2 细胞中的碱性磷酸酶(ALP)活性,同时伴随着[具体基因名称 1]和[具体基因名称 2]mRNA 表达的降低。然而,我们发现茄解碱对 TNF-α 和 PGE2 引发的转录因子活性没有影响,因此表明其对 Hh 通路活性具有选择性。此外,我们通过一系列补充数据确定茄解碱通过作用于其转录因子 Gli 来抑制 Hh 通路活性。我们还观察到茄解碱明显抑制由 Smo 突变体异位表达引发的 Gli-荧光素酶活性,这些突变体可能导致对当前 Smo 抑制剂产生耐药性。我们的研究表明,茄解碱可能通过作用于 Gli 显著抑制 Hh 通路活性,因此表明有可能将茄解碱用作先导化合物来开发抗癌药物,以对抗当前 Smo 抑制剂的耐药性。