FOXM1 inhibitors as potential diagnostic agents: 1st generation of a PET probe targeting FOXM1 to detect triple negative-breast cancer in vitro and in vivo

FOXM1 promotes TGF-β2-induced injury of human lens epithelial cells by up regulating VEGFA expression

OBJECTIVE

To explore whether Fork head box protein M1 (FOXM1) is involved in TGF-β2-induced injury of human lens epithelial cells and its related mechanism.

METHODS

Human lens epithelium samples from cataract patients and healthy controls were collected. A cellular epithelial injury model was established by treating HLE-B3 cells with TGF-β2. QPCR, immunoblot assays were performed to detect the levels of FOXM1 in human cataract samples and the lens epithelial injury cell model. FOXM1 siRNA and pcDNA3.1-FOXM1 plasmids were transfected into the cells to knockdown and overexpress FOXM1, respectively. MTT and wound closure and transwell assays were performed to analyze cell proliferation and migration in HLE-B3 cells. Immunoblot assays were also conducted to detect the effects of FOXM1 on EMT, VEGFA and MAPK/ERK signaling.

RESULTS

We found high expression of FOXM1 in lens tissues of cataract patients. Silencing of FOXM1 in TGF-β2-induced HLE-B3 cells suppressed cell proliferation, migration, and the EMT process. Mechanistically, we found that downregulation of FOXM1 inhibited the VEGFA/MAPK signaling pathway in TGF-β2-induced HLE-B3 cells.

CONCLUSION

FOXM1 promoted TGF-β2-induced injury of human lens epithelial cells (hLECs) by promoting VEGFA expression. FOXM1 could be a potential drug target for the treatment of ocular diseases.

Structure–Activity Relationship of N-Phenylthieno[2,3-b]pyridine-2-carboxamide Derivatives Designed as Forkhead Box M1 Inhibitors: The Effect of Electron-Withdrawing and Donating Substituents on the Phenyl Ring

We report synthesis, characterization, biological evaluation, and molecular-docking studies of 18 thieno[2,3-b]pyridines with a phenylacetamide moiety at position 2, which is disubstituted with F, Cl, Br, or I at position 4, and with electron-withdrawing and electron-donating groups (-CN, -NO₂, -CF₃, and -CH₃) at position 2, to study how the electronic properties of the substituents affected the FOXM1-inhibitory activity. Among compounds 1–18, only those bearing a -CN (regardless of the halogen) decreased FOXM1 expression in a triple-negative breast cancer cell line (MDA-MB-231), as shown by Western blotting. However, only compounds 6 and 16 decreased the relative expression of FOXM1 to a level lower than 50%, and hence, we determined their anti-proliferative activity (IC₅₀) in MDA-MB-231 cells using the MTT assay, which was comparable to that observed with FDI-6, in contrast to compound 1, which was inactive according to both Western blot and MTT assays. We employed molecular docking to calculate the binding interactions of compounds 1–18 in the FOXM1 DNA-binding site. The results suggest a key role for residues Val296 and Leu289 in this binding. Furthermore, we used molecular electrostatic potential maps showing the effects of different substituents on the overall electron density.