Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39631207›Full record

ArticleTranslational oncology2025

Indirect targeting of MYC and direct targeting in combination with chemotherapies are more effective than direct mono-targeting in triple negative breast cancer.

Negesse Mekonnen, Hobin Yang, Nirmal Rajasekaran, Kyoung Song, Yoon-La Choi, Young Kee Shin

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Translational oncology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Ribosome biogenesis bottlenecks reveal vulnerabilities in cancer.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026
    Article
  2. Review
  3. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Negesse MekonnenResearch Institute of Pharmaceutical Science, Department of Pharmacy, Seoul National University, College of Pharmacy, Seoul, South Korea; Department of Veterinary Science, School of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. Electronic address: mnegesse@snu.ac.kr.
Hobin YangCollege of Pharmacy, Kyungsung University, Busan, South Korea. Electronic address: hbyang@ks.ac.kr.
Nirmal RajasekaranR&D Center, ABION Inc., Seoul 08394, South Korea. Electronic address: nirmalrajasekaran@gmail.com.
Kyoung SongCollege of Pharmacy, Duksung Women's University, Seoul, South Korea. Electronic address: songseoul17@duksung.ac.kr.
Yoon-La ChoiDepartment of Health Sciences and Technology, SAIHST, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea; Laboratory of Molecular Pathology and Theranostics, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea; Department of Pathology and Translational Genomics, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea. Electronic address: ylachoi@skku.edu.
Young Kee ShinResearch Institute of Pharmaceutical Science, Department of Pharmacy, Seoul National University, College of Pharmacy, Seoul, South Korea; R&D Center, ABION Inc., Seoul 08394, South Korea; Department of Molecular Medicine and Biopharmaceutical Sciences, Seoul National University, Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul, South Korea; Bio-MAX/N-Bio, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea. Electronic address: ykeeshin@snu.ac.kr.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

MYC amplification is disproportionally elevated in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) compared to other subtypes of breast cancer. Indeed, MYC has long been considered an undruggable oncogene using conventional drug design strategies or small molecules. We hypothesized that targeting MYC using asymmetric siRNA (asiRNA) alone or in combination with chemotherapeutic agents or indirectly via BRD4 and RRM2, may curb its oncogenic behavior. We developed paclitaxel-, doxorubicin-, and cisplatin-resistant MDA-MB-231 cells to study MYC's role in upregulating DNA repair genes during drug resistance development. Our results showed that the knockdown of either MYC or RRM2 downregulated both RAD51 and PARP1 but increased γH2AX. The cytotoxic effect of RRM2 knockdown was significantly (p < 0.05) higher than that of direct MYC knockdown. The knockdown of BRD4 was more effective than the direct knockdown of MYC in downregulating MYC protein. The combined use of asiRNA-VP (Vinylphosphonate) with dacomitinib or talazoparib was synthetic lethal in TNBC cell lines. Compared to chemotherapy-sensitive cells, resistant cells showed overexpression of MYC, RRM2, RAD51, and PARP1 proteins upon chemotherapy treatment, but downregulated in cells treated with asiRNA-VP combination. We confirmed that MYC knockdown upregulated cFLIP, BCL2, STAT1, pSTAT1, STAT2, and cleaved saspase-3 in both TNBC and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines. Finally, we recommend a combination treatment approach that synergizes with MYC inhibition rather than monotherapy or indirect targeting via upstream regulators such as the BRD4 and RRM2 genes or selective modulation at the protein level to suppress anti-apoptotic genes (cFLIP and BCL2) at the same time.

Indexed as

Chemotherapy resistancec-MYCDNA repair gene upregulationRRM2Synthetic lethality

Identifiers

PMID39631207
PMCPMC11652953

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.