Project description:The Krüppel-like Factors 4 and 2 (KLF4/2) are transcription factors and master regulators of endothelial cells (ECs) phenotype and homeostasis. KLF4/2 are important blood-flow-responsive genes within ECs that differentially regulate the expression of factors that confer anti-inflammatory, antithrombotic, and antiproliferative effects in ECs. Genetic inactivation of endothelial HEG1 (Heart of glass) or KRIT1 (Krev interaction trapped protein 1) lead to upregulation of KLF4/2 expression levels. Furthermore, increased expression of thrombomodulin (THBD) and suppression of thrombospondin (THBS1) was ascribed to elevation of KLF4/2 as a result of loss of endothelial KRIT1. Here, we developed a high-throughput screening assay to identify inhibitors of the HEG1-KRIT1 interaction and identified, HEG1-KRIT1 inhibitor 1 (HKi1), as a promising hit inhibitor. The crystal structure of HKi1 bound to the KRIT1 FERM domain confirmed the primary screening results and ultimately led to the identification of a fragment-like inhibitor (HKi3), which occupies the HEG1 pocket producing comparable activity. These findings suggest that these inhibitors block the interaction by competing with the HEG1 for binding to KRIT1 FERM domain. Moreover, our results demonstrate that HKi3 upregulates KLF4/2 gene expression in two types of human ECs. These results reveal that acute pharmacological inhibition of the HEG1-KRIT1 interaction rapidly induces expression of KLF4/2 and their important transcriptional targets thrombomodulin and thrombospondin.
Project description:Acinar ductal metaplasia (ADM), is believed to be one of the earliest precursor lesions towards the development of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, and maintaining the pancreatic acinar cell phenotype suppresses tumor formation. We report that pStat3 and HDAC inhibition can attenuate ADM in vitro and TSA treatment reverses the dedifferentiated phenotype to one that is more acinar. Our findings suggest that pharmacological inhibition or reversal of pancreatic ADM represents a potential therapeutic strategy for blocking ductal reprogramming of acinar cells.
Project description:Since direct pharmacological inhibition of RAS has thus far been unsuccessful, we explored system biology approaches to identify synergistic drug combination(s) that can mimic direct RAS inhibition. Leveraging an inducible mouse model of NRAS-mutant melanoma, we compare pharmacological MEK inhibition to complete NRAS-Q61K extinction in vivo. NRAS-Q61K extinction leads to a complete and durable tumor regression by enhancing both apoptosis and cell cycle arrest. By contrast, MEK inhibition only produces tumor stasis at best and we find that it robustly activates apoptosis but does not significantly impede proliferation. We used microarrays to determine which transcripts were affected by NRAS-Q61K extinction but insufficiently by MEK inhibition. We selected a single comparative timepoint, 4 days post-treatment. Downstream analyses included GSEA and TRAP algorithms, leading to the identification of a differentially affected CDK4-driven proliferation network. Immune genes were also identified as significant, but control experiments determined these to be largely the off-target effects of doxycycline and not of NRAS-Q61K extinction. The iNRAS-475 mouse melanoma cell line was injected intradermally into nude mice which were fed 2mg/ml doxycycline water. Tumors were allowed to reach 200-500mm3 after 6 weeks. Mice were then treated with vehicle or 100mg/kg of the AZD6244 MEK inhibitor, or doxycyline was withdrawn from the diet. Each sample represents a distinct tumor and thus provide six biological, not technical replicates per cohort.