Abstract 5243: 3-Bromopyruvate in combination with radiation inhibits pancreatic cancer growth by dismantling mitochondria and ATP generation in a preclinical mouse model

Abstract

Abstract 3-Bromopyruvate (3 BP) is a promising anticancer drug against pancreatic cancer. It exerts potent anticancer effects by inhibiting hexokinase II enzyme of glycolysis pathway and ATP generation in cancer cells. In present investigation we have examined the effect of 3-BromoPyruvate employing panc-2 cancer cells, and syngeneic pancreatic cancer mouse model. The clonogenic survival assay demonstrated dose dependent inhibition of cell growth, and we observed 95% cell death at 15 uM conc. Further, ATP production was severely inhibited in cancer cells treated with same concentration of 3-BP. We also observed that 3-BP in combination with low doses of irradiation was more effective in killing cancer cells than 3-BP alone. Electron microscopy revealed that 3-BromoPyruvate severely damaged mitochondrial integrity which might have severely affected ATP generation in cancer cells. We further tested 3-BromoPyruvate (2.5-10.0 mg/kg) in syngeneic panc-2 tumor mouse model and observed that 3-BP at10.0 mg/kg dose significantly reduced tumor growth (volume) about 35-40%. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) data showed that 3-BP inhibits hexokinase II (HK2) and TGFbeta1 and enhanced active caspase-3 expression in tumor tissues as compared to untreated control. The disruption of the interaction between VDAC1 and HK2 due to 3BP treatment was confirmed by CO-IP. Interestingly, 3 BP at higher dose induces caspase-3 activation in tumor derived organoid without showing any effect on normal pancreatic organoid. Altogether, the results in this study demonstrated that 3 BP could be a promising anti-tumor drug against pancreatic cancer and its efficacy could be improved in combination with radiation therapy. Citation Format: Sanjit K. Roy, Tijana Dukic, Binny Bhandary, Aneesh Acharya, Kevin J. Tu, Young H. Ko, Hem D. Shukla. 3-Bromopyruvate in combination with radiation inhibits pancreatic cancer growth by dismantling mitochondria and ATP generation in a preclinical mouse model [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 5243.