ArticleJournal of cancer research and clinical oncology2023
Virtual screening reveals aprepitant to be a potent inhibitor of neutral sphingomyelinase 2: implications in blockade of exosome release in cancer therapy.
Article in Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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1 citing paper in PubMed, 3 citations in OpenAlex.
- SMPD3 as a Potential Biomarker and Therapeutic Target in Hepatocellular Carcinoma.International journal of genomics · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeExosomes are membrane-derived nano-vesicles upregulated in pathological conditions like cancer. Therefore, inhibiting their release is a potential strategy for the development of more efficient combination therapies. Neutral sphingomyelinase 2 (nSMase2) is a key component in exosome release; however, a clinically safe yet efficient nSMase2 inhibitor remains to be used discovered. Accordingly, we made an effort to identify potential nSMase2 inhibitor(s) among the approved drugs.
methodsVirtual screening was performed and aprepitant was selected for further investigation. To evaluate the reliability of the complex, molecular dynamics were performed. Finally, using the CCK-8 assay in HCT116 cells, the highest non-toxic concentrations of aprepitant were identified and the nSMase2 activity assay was performed to measure the inhibitory activity of aprepitant, in vitro.
resultsTo validate the screening results, molecular docking was performed, and the retrieved scores were in line with the screening results. The root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) plot of aprepitant-nSMase2 showed proper convergence. Following treatment with different concentrations of aprepitant in both cell-free and cell-dependent assays, nSMase2 activity was remarkably decreased.
conclusionAprepitant, at a concentration as low as 15 µM, was able to inhibit nSmase2 activity in HCT116 cells without any significant effects on their viability. Aprepitant is therefore suggested to be a potentially safe exosome release inhibitor.
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