The development of potent, competitive CXCR4 antagonists for the prevention of cancer metastasis

Isabel Hamshaw, Marco M.D. Cominetti, Wing-Yee Lai, Mark Searcey, Anja Mueller

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

Cancer metastasis is the cause of up to 90 % of cancer related mortality. The CXCR4 receptor and its cognate ligand, CXCL12, have major roles in enabling cancer metastasis and consequently, the CXCR4 receptor has become an attractive therapeutic target for the prevention of metastasis. Despite this, CXCR4 antagonists have had limited success in clinical trials due to cellular toxicity and poor stability and efficacy. In this study, we developed a novel, competitive CXCR4 antagonist (IS4) that through copper-catalysed-azide-alkyne-cycloaddition can be clicked to other chemical moieties such as fluorescent dyes (IS4-FAM) for CXCR4-based imaging. We determined that these CXCR4 antagonists were non-toxic and could be used to specifically label the CXCR4 receptor. Furthermore, IS4 and IS4-FAM inhibited CXCL12-stimulated cancer cell migration and Ca2+ release in both adherent and suspension cell lines with similar or improved potency as compared to two literature CXCR4 antagonists. Our results highlight the potential of IS4 and IS4-FAM as research tools and as potent CXCR4 antagonists for the prevention of metastasis.
Original languageEnglish
Article number115921
JournalBiochemical Pharmacology
Volume218
Early online date11 Nov 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2023

Data Availability Statement

Data will be made available on request

Acknowledgements

We are indebted to Dr Derek Warren at the University of East Anglia for use of his VSMCs and Alice Bradford for her assistance in the growth of these cells. We also thank James McColl at the Henry Wellcome Laboratory for Cellular Imaging for the training and assistance provided regarding microscopy image acquisition.

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