2. Academic Validation
  3. Antifungal agent Terbinafine restrains tumor growth in preclinical models of hepatocellular carcinoma via AMPK-mTOR axis

Antifungal agent Terbinafine restrains tumor growth in preclinical models of hepatocellular carcinoma via AMPK-mTOR axis

  • Oncogene. 2021 Aug;40(34):5302-5313. doi: 10.1038/s41388-021-01934-y.
Er-Bin Zhang  # 1,  Xiuping Zhang  # 2 3,  Kang Wang 2,  Fengkun Zhang 1,  Tian-Wei Chen 1,  Ning Ma 1,  Qian-Zhi Ni 1,  Yi-Kang Wang 1,  Qian-Wen Zheng 1 4,  Hui-Jun Cao 1,  Ji Xia 1,  Bing Zhu 1,  Sheng Xu 1,  Xufen Ding 1,  Xiang Wang 5,  Zhigang Li 6,  Shuqun Cheng 7,  Dong Xie 8 9 10,  Jing-Jing Li 11
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 CAS Key Laboratory of Nutrition, Metabolism and Food Safety, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 200031, Shanghai, China.
  • 2 Department of Hepatic Surgery VI, Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, Naval Medical University, 2000438, Shanghai, China.
  • 3 Faculty of Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Surgery, Chinese People Liberation Army (PLA) General Hospital; Institute of Hepatobiliary Surgery of Chinese PLA, 100853, Beijing, China.
  • 4 School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, 201210, Shanghai, China.
  • 5 First People's Hospital of Huzhou, First Affiliated Hospital of Huzhou University, 313000, Huzhou, Zhejiang, China.
  • 6 Department of Thoracic Surgery, Section of Esophageal Surgery, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 200030, Shanghai, China.
  • 7 Department of Hepatic Surgery VI, Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, Naval Medical University, 2000438, Shanghai, China. [email protected].
  • 8 CAS Key Laboratory of Nutrition, Metabolism and Food Safety, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 200031, Shanghai, China. [email protected].
  • 9 School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, 201210, Shanghai, China. [email protected].
  • 10 NHC Key Laboratory of Food Safety Risk Assessment, China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment, 100022, Beijing, China. [email protected].
  • 11 CAS Key Laboratory of Nutrition, Metabolism and Food Safety, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 200031, Shanghai, China. [email protected].
  • # Contributed equally.
PMID: 34247189 DOI: 10.1038/s41388-021-01934-y
Abstract

The prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unsatisfactory due to limited effective treatment options. In this work, we investigated the therapeutic efficacy of Terbinafine for HCC and the underlying mechanism. The influence of Terbinafine on cell growth, 3D spheroid formation, clonogenic survival, and protein synthesis was investigated in human HCC cell lines. Co-immunoprecipitation, immunofluorescence, and other techniques were employed to explore how Terbinafine exerts its Anticancer effect. Subcutaneous tumorigenicity assay, orthotopic and patient-derived xenograft (PDX) HCC models were used to evaluate the Anticancer effect of Terbinafine monotherapy and the combinatorial treatment with Terbinafine and sorafenib against HCC. The Anticancer activity of Terbinafine was Squalene epoxidase (SQLE)-independent. Instead, Terbinafine robustly suppressed the proliferation of HCC cells by inhibiting mTORC1 signaling via activation of AMPK. Terbinafine alone or in combination with sorafenib delayed tumor progression and markedly prolonged the survival of tumor-bearing mice. The synergy between Terbinafine and sorafenib was due to concomitant inhibition of mTORC1 and induction of severe persistent DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), which led to the delayed proliferation and accelerated cell death. Terbinafine showed promising Anticancer efficacy in preclinical models of HCC and may serve as a potential therapeutic strategy for HCC.

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