Genome-wide inhibition of pro-atherogenic gene expression by multi-STAT targeting compounds as a novel treatment strategy of CVD

ABSTRACT: Cardiovascular diseases (CVD), including atherosclerosis, are globally the leading cause of death. Key factors contributing to onset and progression of atherosclerosis and plaque development include the pro-infslammatory cytokines Interferon (IFN)α and IFNγ and the Pattern Recognition Receptor (PRR) Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4). Together, they trigger activation of members of the Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription (STAT) family. Searches for STAT3-targeting compounds, exploring the pTyr-SH2 interaction area of STAT3, yielded many small molecules, including STATTIC and STX-0119. However, many of these inhibitors do not seem STAT-specific. We hypothesized that non-specific STAT-inhibitors that simultaneously block STAT1, STAT2 and STAT3 activity and pro-inflammatory target gene expression may be a promising avenue for the treatment of CVD. We developed a pipeline approach combining comparative in silico docking of multiple STAT-SH2 models on multi-million Clean Lead and Clean Drug-Like libraries with in vitro STAT inhibition validation, as a novel STAT-inhibitory selection strategy. This approach allowed us to identify a new type of non-specific STAT inhibitor, C01L_F03 targeting the SH2 domain of STAT1, 2 and 3 with equal affinity. Moreover we observed a similar STAT cross-binding mechanism for STATTIC and STX-0119, leading to genome-wide inhibition of pro-atherogenic gene expression. Consequently, a multi-STAT inhibitory strategy was applied to inhibit endothelial cell (EC) migration, leukocyte adhesion to ECs and impairment of aortic ring contractility under inflammatory conditions. Together, this implicates that multi-STAT inhibition could provide a powerfull approach for the success of combating vascular inflammation in CVD

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE101508 | GEO | 2017/07/18

SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA394705

REPOSITORIES: GEO