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Research Paper|Volume 12, Issue 19|pp 19147—19158

BRD4 inhibition sensitizes renal cell carcinoma cells to the PI3K/mTOR dual inhibitor VS-5584

Ming Xu1, Lijun Xu1, Yin Wang2, Guangcheng Dai1, Boxin Xue1, Yuan-yuan Liu3, Jianbing Zhu4, Jin Zhu1
  • 1Department of Urology, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China
  • 2Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Neuropsychiatric Diseases and Institute of Neuroscience, Soochow University, Suzhou, China
  • 3Clinical Research and Laboratory Center, Affiliated Kunshan Hospital of Jiangsu University, Kunshan, China
  • 4Department of Radiology, Suzhou Science and Technology Town Hospital, The Affiliated Suzhou Science and Technology Town Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Suzhou, China
* Equal contribution
Received: May 21, 2020Accepted: June 29, 2020Published: October 13, 2020
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.103723

Copyright: © 2020 Xu 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

Activation of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway promotes the progression of renal cell carcinoma (RCC). This study tested the anti-RCC cell activity of the PI3K/mTOR dual inhibitor, VS-5584. We show that VS-5584 inhibited PI3K/AKT/mTORC1/2 activation in established (786-O and A498 lines) and primary RCC cells, thereby suppressing cell survival, proliferation, migration and cell cycle progression. VS-5584 induced significant apoptosis in RCC cells. A daily single oral dose of VS-5584 (20 mg/kg) significantly inhibited 786-O tumor growth in vivo. VS-5584 treatment of 786-O tumor xenografts and RCC cells resulted in feedback upregulation of bromodomain-containing protein 4 (BRD4). Furthermore, BRD4 inhibition (by JQ1 and CPI203), knockdown or complete knockout potentiated VS-5584-induced RCC cell death and apoptosis. Conversely, forced overexpression of BRD4 attenuated the cytotoxicity of VS-5584 in 786-O cells. Collectively, VS-5584 potently inhibits RCC cell proliferation and survival. Its anti-tumor activity is further enhanced by the targeted inhibition of BRD4.