The Fe-S cluster-containing NEET proteins mitoNEET and NAF-1 as chemotherapeutic targets in breast cancer

  • Fang Bai
  • , Faruck Morcos
  • , Yang Sung Sohn
  • , Merav Darash-Yahana
  • , Celso O. Rezende
  • , Colin H. Lipper
  • , Mark L. Paddock
  • , Luhua Song
  • , Yuting Luo
  • , Sarah H. Holt
  • , Sagi Tamir
  • , Emmanuel A. Theodorakis
  • , Patricia A. Jennings
  • , José N. Onuchic
  • , Ron Mittler
  • , Rachel Nechushtai

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

72 Scopus citations

Abstract

Identification of novel drug targets and chemotherapeutic agents is a high priority in the fight against cancer. Here, we report that MAD-28, a designed cluvenone (CLV) derivative, binds to and destabilizes two members of a unique class of mitochondrial and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) 2Fe-2S proteins, mitoNEET (mNT) and nutrient-deprivation autophagy factor-1 (NAF-1), recently implicated in cancer cell proliferation. Docking analysis of MAD-28 to mNT/NAF-1 revealed that in contrast to CLV, which formed a hydrogen bond network that stabilized the 2Fe-2S clusters of these proteins, MAD-28 broke the coordinative bond between the His ligand and the cluster's Fe of mNT/NAF-1. Analysis of MAD-28 performed with control (Michigan Cancer Foundation; MCF-10A) and malignant (M.D. Anderson-metastatic breast; MDA-MB-231 or MCF-7) human epithelial breast cells revealed that MAD-28 had a high specificity in the selective killing of cancer cells, without any apparent effects on normal breast cells. MAD-28 was found to target the mitochondria of cancer cells and displayed a surprising similarity in its effects to the effects of mNT/NAF-1 shRNA suppression in cancer cells, causing a decrease in respiration and mitochondrial membrane potential, as well as an increase in mitochondrial iron content and glycolysis. As expected, if the NEET proteins are targets of MAD-28, cancer cells with suppressed levels of NAF-1 or mNT were less susceptible to the drug. Taken together, our results suggest that NEET proteins are a novel class of drug targets in the chemotherapeutic treatment of breast cancer, and that MAD-28 can now be used as a template for rational drug design for NEET Fe-S cluster-destabilizing anticancer drugs.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3698-3703
Number of pages6
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume112
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - 24 Mar 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015, National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • Iron-sulfur proteins
  • Mitocan
  • Mitochondria
  • Neet proteins
  • Rational drug design

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