Premium
Possible repurposing of pyrvinium pamoate for the treatment of mesothelioma: A pre‐clinical assessment
Author(s) -
Barbarino Marcella,
Cesari Daniele,
Intruglio Riccardo,
Indovina Paola,
Namagerdi Asadoor,
Bertolino Franca Maria,
Bottaro Maria,
Rahmani Delaram,
Bellan Cristiana,
Giordano Antonio
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of cellular physiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.529
H-Index - 174
eISSN - 1097-4652
pISSN - 0021-9541
DOI - 10.1002/jcp.26579
Subject(s) - wnt signaling pathway , medicine , cancer research , mesothelioma , drug repositioning , pharmacology , drug , biology , pathology , microbiology and biotechnology , signal transduction
Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is a very aggressive asbestos‐related cancer, whose incidence is increasing worldwide. Unfortunately, no effective therapies are currently available and the prognosis is extremely poor. Recently, the anti‐helminthic drug pyrvinium pamoate has attracted a strong interest for its anti‐cancer activity, which has been demonstrated in many cancer models. Considering the previously established inhibitory effect of pyrvinium pamoate on the Wnt/β‐catenin pathway and given the important role of this pathway in MM, we investigated the potential anti‐tumor activity of this drug in MM cell lines. We observed that pyrvinium pamoate significantly impairs MM cell proliferation, cloning efficiency, migration, and tumor spheroid formation. At the molecular level, our data show that pyrvinium pamoate down‐regulates the expression of β‐catenin and Wnt‐regulates genes. Overall, our study suggests that the repurposing of pyrvinium pamoate for MM treatment could represent a new promising therapeutic approach.