Many human cancers, including breast and pancreatic cancers, harbor aberrant Stat3 that functions as a master regulator of events that promote tumor formation and progression. Blocking aberrant Stat3 activity induces cancer cell growth inhibition and apoptosis, and tumor regression in mouse models. Given the number of human tumors with aberrant Stat3 activity, there is a high commercial potential for Stat3 inhibitors as novel anticancer drugs. Moreover, effective and selective Stat3 inhibitors will provide excellent molecular probes to interrogate Stat3 signaling to advance our understanding of the molecular mechanisms by which this protein mediates carcinogenesis, and provide new directions to thwart the functions of the aberrant protein. By computational modeling that exploited the key structural requirements for Stat3 activation, together with in silico screening of the NCI's Diversity and Plated sets chemical libraries, we identified agents, NSC 42067, NSC 59263 and NSC 74859, as binders of Stat3-SH2 domain and inhibitors of Stat3 DNA-binding activity (IC50 of 65-86 Many human cancers harbor abnormal Stat3 activity that functions as a master regulator of events that promote tumor formation and progression. Blocking abnormal Stat3 activity induces cancer cell growth inhibition, apoptosis, and tumor regression in mouse models. Effective and selective Stat3 inhibitors are excellent research tools to interrogate Stat3 signaling to advance our understanding of the mechanisms leading to cancer, and represent potential new anticancer agents. Our proposal defines the molecular and biological properties of novel agents as Stat3-selective inhibitors that possess antitumor activity and that may be suitable for development into novel anticancer drugs.Public Health Relevance
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