Research Paper|Volume 12, Issue 10|pp 9489—9499

PI3K-Akt-mTOR inhibition by GNE-477 inhibits renal cell carcinoma cell growth in vitro and in vivo

Xueting Ye¹, Jian-Wei Ruan², Hang Huang¹, Wei-Ping Huang¹, Yan Zhang³, Fangyi Zhang¹

¹Department of Urology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
²Department of Orthopedics, Taizhou Municipal Hospital, Taizhou, China
³Department of Radiotherapy and Oncology, Affiliated Kunshan Hospital of Jiangsu University, Kunshan, China

* Co-first authors

Received: February 5, 2020Accepted: March 31, 2020Published: May 18, 2020

Copyright © 2020 Ye et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Sustained activation of PI3K-Akt-mTOR cascade is important for renal cell carcinoma (RCC) cell progression. GNE-477 is a novel and efficacious PI3K-mTOR dual inhibitor. The current study tested its anti-RCC cell activity. In the primary cultured human RCC cells, GNE-477 potently inhibited cell growth, viability and proliferation, as well as cell cycle progression, migration and invasion. Furthermore, it induced robust apoptosis activation in primary RCC cells, but being non-cytotoxic to HK-2 epithelial cells and primary human renal epithelial cells. In the primary RCC cells GNE-477 inactivated PI3K-Akt-mTOR cascade by blocking phosphorylation of p85, Akt1, p70S6K1 and S6. Restoring Akt-mTOR activation by a constitutively-active Akt1 reversed GNE-477-induced anti-RCC cell activity. In nude mice intraperitoneal injection of GNE-477 potently suppressed RCC xenograft tumor growth. Collectively, targeting PI3K-Akt-mTOR cascade by GNE-477 inhibits RCC cell growth in vitro and in vivo.