Ferroquine, the next generation antimalarial drug, has antitumor activity. Issue 1 (December 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kondratskyi, Artem; Kondratska, Kateryna; Vanden Abeele, Fabien; Gordienko, Dmitri; Dubois, Charlotte; Toillon, Robert-Allain; Slomianny, Christian; Lemière, Sébastien; Delcourt, Philippe; Dewailly, Etienne; Skryma, Roman; Biot, Christophe; Prevarskaya, Natalia
• Is Part Of: Scientific reports. Volume 7:Issue 1(2017)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 15
• Publication Date: 2017-12
• Subjects: Natural history -- Research -- Periodicals; Biology -- Research -- Periodicals; Physical sciences -- Research -- Periodicals; Earth sciences -- Research -- Periodicals; Environmental sciences -- Research -- Periodicals; 502.85
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-16154-2
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2045-2322

Abstract

Abstract Despite the tremendous progress in medicine, cancer remains one of the most serious global health problems awaiting new effective therapies. Here we present ferroquine (FQ), the next generation antimalarial drug, as a promising candidate for repositioning as cancer therapeutics. We report that FQ potently inhibits autophagy, perturbs lysosomal function and impairs prostate tumor growthin vivo . We demonstrate that FQ negatively regulates Akt kinase and hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) and is particularly effective in starved and hypoxic conditions frequently observed in advanced solid cancers. FQ enhances the anticancer activity of several chemotherapeutics suggesting its potential application as an adjuvant to existing anticancer therapy. Alike its parent compound chloroquine (CQ), FQ accumulates within and deacidifies lysosomes. Further, FQ induces lysosomal membrane permeabilization, mitochondrial depolarization and caspase-independent cancer cell death. Overall, our work identifies ferroquine as a promising new drug with a potent anticancer activity.