Guus M Bol, Farhad Vesuna, Min Xie, Jing Zeng, Khaled Aziz, Nishant Gandhi, Anne Levine, Ashley Irving, Dorian Korz, Saritha Tantravedi, Marise R Heerma van Voss, Kathleen Gabrielson, Evan A Bordt, Brian M Polster, Leslie Cope, Petra van der Groep, Atul Kondaskar, Michelle A Rudek, Ramachandra S Hosmane, Elsken van der Wall, Paul J van Diest, Phuoc T Tran, Venu Raman
Lung cancer is the most common malignancy worldwide and is a focus for developing targeted therapies due to its refractory nature to current treatment. We identified a RNA helicase, DDX3, which is overexpressed in many cancer types including lung cancer and is associated with lower survival in lung cancer patients. We designed a first-in-class small molecule inhibitor, RK-33, which binds to DDX3 and abrogates its activity. Inhibition of DDX3 by RK-33 caused G1 cell cycle arrest, induced apoptosis, and promoted radiation sensitization in DDX3-overexpressing cells...
May 2015: EMBO Molecular Medicine