BP‑1‑102 exerts antitumor effects on T‑cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells by suppressing the JAK2/STAT3/c‑Myc signaling pathway

Can Ye; Xueqin Ruan; Yan Zhao; Hongkai Zhu; Canfei Wang; Zhao Cheng; Hongling Peng

doi:10.3892/etm.2023.11890

BP‑1‑102 exerts antitumor effects on T‑cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells by suppressing the JAK2/STAT3/c‑Myc signaling pathway

Exp Ther Med. 2023 Mar 15;25(5):191. doi: 10.3892/etm.2023.11890. eCollection 2023 May.

Authors

Can Ye^{1

2

3}, Xueqin Ruan^{1

2

3}, Yan Zhao^{1

2

3}, Hongkai Zhu^{1

2

3}, Canfei Wang^{1

2

3}, Zhao Cheng^{1

2

3}, Hongling Peng^{1

2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Hematology, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410000, P.R. China.
² Institute of Molecular Hematology, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410000, P.R. China.
³ Hunan Engineering Research Center of Targeted Therapy for Hematopoietic Malignancies, Changsha, Hunan 410000, P.R. China.
⁴ Hunan Key Laboratory of Tumor Models and Individualized Medicine, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410000, P.R. China.

Abstract

Drug resistance and relapse of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) remain significant concerns for physicians; hence, the development and screening of effective targeted drugs remain important. Considering that STAT3 is emerging as a potential therapeutic target for T-ALL, T-ALL cell lines (MOLT-4 and CUTLL1) were treated with BP-1-102, a small-molecule inhibitor that blocks STAT3 phosphorylation. Cell Counting Kit-8 assay and colony formation assay results showed that BP-1-102 inhibited T-ALL cell proliferation and colony formation. Flow cytometry and morphological results demonstrated that BP-1-102 dramatically induced apoptosis and caused cell cycle arrest at the G₀/G₁ phase in T-ALL cell lines. Western blotting results indicated that BP-1-102 suppressed the JAK2/STAT3/c-Myc pathway activity in T-ALL cell lines. In conclusion, BP-1-102 suppressed the JAK2/STAT3/c-Myc signaling pathway in T-ALL cells and exerted various antitumor effects, representing a promising targeted antitumor inhibitor.

Keywords: STAT3; T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia; apoptosis; cell cycle; colony formation; proliferation; small-molecule inhibitor.

Grants and funding

Funding: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 82070175).