Hexamethylene Bisacetamide (HMBA) simultaneously targets AKT and MAPK pathway and represses NF-κB activity: Implications for cancer therapy

Abstract

Hexamethylene Bisacetamide (HMBA) is a hybrid polar compound originally developed as a differentiation inducing agent. We show in this study that HMBA can inhibit activation of several NF-κB target genes in both lung and breast cancer cell lines. Furthermore, consistent with its ability to inhibit NF-κB function, HMBA can also sensitize cells to apoptosis. We show that HMBA mediates inhibition of the Akt and ERK/MAPK cascade, both of which are critical for cell survival and proliferation and are well known regulators of NF-κB activation. We also show that PTEN negative breast cancer cells which have hyper activation of the PI3K/Akt pathway show increased sensitivity to growth inhibitory effects of combination of HMBA and TNFα. Furthermore, HMBA can decrease the kinase activity of the IKK complex leading to defective phosphorylation of IκBα and Ser536 of p65. This study gives mechanistic insight into the mechanism of action of HMBA, provides the rationale for the potential use of HMBA in combination with various existing kinase inhibitors in combination therapy and also suggests useful biomarkers for monitoring tumor response to HMBA.