Repurposing Quinacrine for Treatment of Malignant Mesothelioma: In-Vitro Therapeutic and Mechanistic Evaluation

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 21; no. 17; p. 6306
• Main Authors: Kulkarni, Nishant S, Vaidya, Bhuvaneshwar, Parvathaneni, Vineela, Bhanja, Debarati, Gupta, Vivek
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 31.08.2020; MDPI
• Subjects: Angiogenesis; Annexin V; Antiangiogenics; Antineoplastic Agents - pharmacology; Apoptosis; Autophagy; Biocompatibility; Cancer therapies; Cell culture; Cell Movement; Cell Proliferation; Chemotherapy; Clinical trials; Computer simulation; Cytotoxicity; Drug Repositioning - methods; drug repurposing; Drugs; FDA approval; Humans; In Vitro Techniques; Lungs; malignant pleural mesothelioma; Medical prognosis; Mesothelioma; Mesothelioma, Malignant - drug therapy; Mesothelioma, Malignant - pathology; Neovascularization, Pathologic - drug therapy; Neovascularization, Pathologic - pathology; Patients; Phagocytosis; Pleural cavity; Quinacrine; Quinacrine - pharmacology; Tumor Cells, Cultured; Western blotting; United States > US; quinacrine; malignant pleural mesothelioma; apoptosis; autophagy; drug repurposing
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms21176306

Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is a rare type of cancer primarily affecting mesothelial cells lining the pleural cavity. In this study, we propose to repurpose quinacrine (QA), a widely approved anti-malarial drug, for Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma (MPM) treatment. QA demonstrates high degree of cytotoxicity against both immortalized and primary patient-derived cell lines with sub-micromolar 50% inhibitory concentration (IC ) values ranging from 1.2 µM (H2452) to 5.03 µM (H28). Further, QA also inhibited cellular migration and colony formation in MPM cells, demonstrated using scratch and clonogenic assays, respectively. A 3D-spheroid cell culture experiment was performed to mimic in-vivo tumor conditions, and QA was reported to be highly effective in this simulated cellular model. Anti-angiogenic properties were also discovered for QA. Autophagy inhibition assay was performed, and results revealed that QA successfully inhibited autophagy process in MPM cells, which has been cited to be one of the survival pathways for MPM. Annexin V real-time apoptosis study revealed significant apoptotic induction in MPM cells following QA treatment. Western blots confirmed inhibition of autophagy and induction of apoptosis. These studies highlight anti-mesothelioma efficacy of QA at low doses, which can be instrumental in developing it as a stand-alone treatment strategy for MPM.