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  2. Chemical Interrogation of Nuclear Size Identifies Compounds with Cancer Cell Line-Specific Effects on Migration and Invasion

Chemical Interrogation of Nuclear Size Identifies Compounds with Cancer Cell Line-Specific Effects on Migration and Invasion

  • ACS Chem Biol. 2022 Mar 18;17(3):680-700. doi: 10.1021/acschembio.2c00004.
Sylvain Tollis 1 2 Andrea Rizzotto 3 Nhan T Pham 4 Sonja Koivukoski 1 Aishwarya Sivakumar 3 Steven Shave 4 Jan Wildenhain 4 Nikolaj Zuleger 3 Jeremy T Keys 5 Jayne Culley 6 Yijing Zheng 4 Jan Lammerding 5 Neil O Carragher 6 Valerie G Brunton 6 Leena Latonen 1 Manfred Auer 4 Mike Tyers 2 Eric C Schirmer 3
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Institute of Biomedicine, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio 70210, Finland.
  • 2 Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec H3T 1J4, Canada.
  • 3 The Institute of Cell Biology, University of Edinburgh, Kings Buildings, Michael Swann Buildings, Max Born Crescent, Edinburgh EH9 3BF, U.K.
  • 4 Institute of Quantitative Biology, Biochemistry and Biotechnology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3BF, U.K.
  • 5 Nancy E. and Peter C. Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering & Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, United States.
  • 6 Edinburgh Cancer Research UK Centre, Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH4 2XR, U.K.
Abstract

Background: Lower survival rates for many Cancer types correlate with changes in nuclear size/scaling in a tumor-type/tissue-specific manner. Hypothesizing that such changes might confer an advantage to tumor cells, we aimed at the identification of commercially available compounds to guide further mechanistic studies. We therefore screened for Food and Drug Administration (FDA)/European Medicines Agency (EMA)-approved compounds that reverse the direction of characteristic tumor nuclear size changes in PC3, HCT116, and H1299 cell lines reflecting, respectively, prostate adenocarcinoma, colonic adenocarcinoma, and small-cell squamous lung Cancer. Results: We found distinct, largely nonoverlapping sets of compounds that rectify nuclear size changes for each tumor cell line. Several classes of compounds including, e.g., serotonin uptake inhibitors, cyclo-oxygenase inhibitors, β-adrenergic receptor agonists, and Na+/K+ ATPase inhibitors, displayed coherent nuclear size phenotypes focused on a particular cell line or across cell lines and treatment conditions. Several compounds from classes far afield from current chemotherapy regimens were also identified. Seven nuclear size-rectifying compounds selected for further investigation all inhibited cell migration and/or invasion. Conclusions: Our study provides (a) proof of concept that nuclear size might be a valuable target to reduce cell migration/invasion in Cancer treatment and (b) the most thorough collection of tool compounds to date reversing nuclear size changes specific to individual cancer-type cell lines. Although these compounds still need to be tested in primary Cancer cells, the cell line-specific nuclear size and migration/invasion responses to particular drug classes suggest that Cancer type-specific nuclear size rectifiers may help reduce metastatic spread.

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