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Published on: October 27, 2014
A gold(III) porphyrin complex with antitumor properties targets the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway
Kim Hei-Man Chow1, Raymond Wai-Yin Sun, Janice B B Lam
1Department of Chemistry and Open Laboratory of Chemical Biology of the Institute of Molecular Technology for Drug Discovery and Synthesis, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China.
Abstract:
Gold(III) complexes have shown promise as antitumor agents, but their clinical usefulness has been limited by their poor stability under physiological conditions. A novel gold(III) porphyrin complex [5-hydroxyphenyl-10,15,20-triphenylporphyrinato gold(III) chloride (gold-2a)] with improved aqueous stability showed 100-fold to 3,000-fold higher cytotoxicity than platinum-based cisplatin and IC50 values in the nanomolar range in a panel of human breast cancer cell lines. Intraductal injections of gold-2a significantly suppressed mammary tumor growth in nude mice. These effects are attributed, in part, to attenuation of Wnt/beta-catenin signaling through inhibition of class I histone deacetylase (HDAC) activity. These data, in combination with computer modeling, suggest that gold-2a may represent a promising class of anticancer HDAC inhibitor preferentially targeting tumor cells with aberrant Wnt/beta-catenin signaling.
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