Revealing a natural marine product as a novel agonist for retinoic acid receptors with a unique binding mode and inhibitory effects on cancer cells.
Retinoids display anti-tumour activity on various cancer cells and therefore have been used as important therapeutic agents. However, adverse side effects and RA (retinoic acid) resistance limit further development and clinical application of retinoid-based therapeutic agents. We report in the present paper the identification of a natural marine product that activates RARs (RA receptors) with a chemical structure distinct from retinoids by high-throughput compound library screening. Luffariellolide was uncovered as a novel RAR agonist by inducing co-activator binding to these receptors in vitro, further inhibiting cell growth and regulating RAR target genes in various cancer cells. Structural and molecular studies unravelled a unique binding mode of this natural ligand to RARs with an unexpected covalent modification on the RAR. Functional characterization further revealed that luffariellolide displays chemotherapeutic potentials for overcoming RA resistance in colon cancer cells, suggesting that luffariellolide may represent a unique template for designing novel non-retinoid compounds with advantages over current RA drugs.
State Key Laboratory for Cellular Stress Biology, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Fujian 361005, China.
Shanshan
S
Wang
Zhao
Z
Wang
Shengchen
S
Lin
Weili
W
Zheng
Rui
R
Wang
Shikai
S
Jin
Jinan
J
Chen
Lihua
L
Jin
Yong
Y
Li
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D059001:Aquatic Organisms; D001665:Binding Sites; D001688:Biological Products / Q000494:pharmacology; D019556:COS Cells; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D003545:Cysteine / Q000737:chemistry; D004354:Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000187:drug effects; D057166:High-Throughput Screening Assays / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007948:Leukemia, Monocytic, Acute; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D018168:Receptors, Retinoic Acid / Q000819:agonists* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D000072482:Retinoic Acid Receptor alpha; D013729:Terpenes / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology*
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D001688:Biological Products; C000607071:RARA protein, human; D018168:Receptors, Retinoic Acid; D000072482:Retinoic Acid Receptor alpha; D013729:Terpenes; C082925:retinoic acid receptor beta; C076150:luffariellolide; D003545:Cysteine