ArticleBritish journal of cancer2023
Azithromycin, a potent autophagy inhibitor for cancer therapy, perturbs cytoskeletal protein dynamics.
Article in British journal of cancer, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Off-target anti-leukemic effects of antibiotics: mechanisms and therapeutic insights.Cancer chemotherapy and pharmacology · 2026Review
- Cancer Therapy Using Antiparasitic Medications Guided by Acupuncture Meridian Assessment: A Case Series of Six Patients.Integrative medicine (Encinitas, Calif.) · 2026Article
- Azithromycin Mitigates Experimental Cryptosporidiosis-Driven Ileocecal Adenocarcinoma by Modulating Autophagy, Apoptosis, and PI3K/AKT Signaling.Biomedicines · 2026Article
- Review
- Autophagy initiation inhibition combined with chemotherapy reverses drug resistance in oral cancer.Discover oncology · 2026Review
- Electrolyzed Hydrogen Water Improves Chemosensitivity to Anticancer Drugs by Potently Suppressing Autophagy.Journal of cellular and molecular medicine · 2026Article
- Vesicle-mediated mitochondrial clearance presents an actionable metabolic vulnerability in triple-negative breast cancer.Cell reports. Medicine · 2025Article
- Repurposing antibiotics: A dual-action approach against bacteria-induced cancer.Cancer pathogenesis and therapy · 2025Review
- Pro-Angiogenic Bioactive Molecules in Vascular Morphogenesis: Integrating Endothelial Cell Dynamics.Current issues in molecular biology · 2025Review
- 3D collagen high-throughput screen identifies drugs that induce epithelial polarity and enhance chemotherapy response in colorectal cancer.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Autophagy induced by metabolic processes leads to solid tumor cell metastatic dormancy and recurrence.Medical oncology (Northwood, London, England) · 2025Review
- Article
- Autophagy as a potential therapeutic target in regulating improper cellular proliferation.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Review
- ALDHCells · 2024Article
- Abemaciclib and Vacuolin-1 decrease aggregate-prone TDP-43 accumulation by accelerating autophagic flux.Biochemistry and biophysics reports · 2024Article
- Drug Repurposing of Selected Antibiotics: An Emerging Approach in Cancer Drug Discovery.ACS omega · 2024Review
- Article
- Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAutophagy plays an important role in tumour cell growth and survival and also promotes resistance to chemotherapy. Hence, autophagy has been targeted for cancer therapy. We previously reported that macrolide antibiotics including azithromycin (AZM) inhibit autophagy in various types of cancer cells in vitro. However, the underlying molecular mechanism for autophagy inhibition remains unclear. Here, we aimed to identify the molecular target of AZM for inhibiting autophagy.
methodsWe identified the AZM-binding proteins using AZM-conjugated magnetic nanobeads for high-throughput affinity purification. Autophagy inhibitory mechanism of AZM was analysed by confocal microscopic and transmission electron microscopic observation. The anti-tumour effect with autophagy inhibition by oral AZM administration was assessed in the xenografted mice model.
resultsWe elucidated that keratin-18 (KRT18) and α/β-tubulin specifically bind to AZM. Treatment of the cells with AZM disrupts intracellular KRT18 dynamics, and KRT18 knockdown resulted in autophagy inhibition. Additionally, AZM treatment suppresses intracellular lysosomal trafficking along the microtubules for blocking autophagic flux. Oral AZM administration suppressed tumour growth while inhibiting autophagy in tumour tissue.
conclusionsAs drug-repurposing, our results indicate that AZM is a potent autophagy inhibitor for cancer treatment, which acts by directly interacting with cytoskeletal proteins and perturbing their dynamics.
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