BMS-582949

IL(interleukin)-6 is a multifunctional cytokine crucial for immunological, hematopoiesis, inflammation, and bone metabolism. Strikingly, IL-6 has been shown to significantly contribute to the initiation of cytokine storm-an acute systemic inflammatory syndrome in Covid-19 patients. Recent study has showed that blocking the IL-6 signaling pathway with an anti-IL-6 receptor monoclonal antibody (mAb) can reduce the severity of COVID-19 symptoms and enhance patient survival. However, the mAb has several drawbacks, such as high cost, potential immunogenicity, and invasive administration due to the large-molecule protein product. Instead, these issues could be mitigated using small molecule IL-6 inhibitors, but none are currently available. This study aimed to discover IL-6 inhibitors based on the PPI with a novel camelid Fab fragment, namely 68F2, in a crystal protein complex structure (PDB ID: 4ZS7). The pharmacophore models and molecular docking were used to screen compounds from DrugBank databases. The oral bioavailability of the top 24 ligands from the screening was predicted by the SwissAMDE tool. Subsequently, the selected molecules from docking and MD simulation illustrated a promising binding affinity in the formation of stable complexes at the active binding pocket of IL-6. Binding energies using the MM-PBSA technique were applied to the top 4 hit compounds. The result indicated that DB08402 and DB12903 could form strong interactions and build stable protein-ligand complexes with IL-6. These potential compounds may serve as a basis for further developing small molecule IL-6 inhibitors in the future.

Tumour repopulation is a major obstacle for successful cancer treatment. This study investigated whether anticancer agents contribute to tumour repopulation in TP53-mutated bile duct cancer cells.

TP53-mutated HuCCT1 and HuH28 cells were exposed to anticancer agents, and recipient cells were exposed to their conditioned media or exosomes. The effect of inhibitors and siRNA-mediated gene silencing of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and of TP53 was analyzed by cell proliferation assays and western blotting.

Conditioned media from genotoxic agent-treated cells promoted proliferation of recipient cells (p<0.05), and this effect was abrogated by exosome inhibitors. Exosomes from gemcitabine- or cisplatin-treated cells increased cell proliferation by 1.6- to 2.2-fold (p<0.05) through p38 MAPK signalling. These effects of exosomes were inhibited by inhibition/silencing of p38 MAPK but not by TP53 silencing.

Exosomal p38 MAPK plays a pivotal role in tumour repopulation in a TP53-independent manner.