2-(2-nitrobenzylidene) indolin-3-one compound inhibits transmembrane prostate androgen-induced protein (TMEPAI) expression and cancer cell proliferation.

Abstract

The transmembrane prostate androgen-induced protein (TMEPAI) is aberrantly expressed in many cancer and plays a crucial role in tumourigenesis, which makes it a potential cancer therapeutic target for drug discovery. Here, we employed a firefly luciferase reporter driven by the TMEPAI gene promoter to screen for compound capable of inhibiting the expression of TMEPAI, and the effects of TMEPAI inhibitor on cancer cell proliferation were evaluated using the colony formation assay, cell cycle analysis, Ki-67 immunofluorescence assay and EdU incorporation assay. 2-(2-nitrobenzylidene) indolin-3-one (JHY-A007-50) was identified and shown to effectively inhibit the TMEPAI promoter activity. Further studies revealed that JHY-A007-50 specifically inhibited the expression of TMEPAI at both the mRNA and protein levels. Moreover, we found that JHY-A007-50 could inhibit cell proliferation and induce cell cycle arrest at the G1 phase. Our results showed that overexpression of TMEPAI decreased the inhibitory effects of JHY-A007-50 on cancer cell proliferation, and JHY-A007-50 did not affect the cell viability of HeLa cells knocked down of TMEPAI. Taken together, these results suggest that compound JHY-A007-50 mediates the downregulation of TMEPAI expression and inhibits cell proliferation in cancer cells.