A small molecule disrupts G4-STAT1 interaction and synergizes with olaparib to drive cancer cell death.
Bloom syndrome protein (BLM), a RecQ family DNA helicase, is consistently overexpressed in multiple malignancies, yet its therapeutic potential remains largely unexplored. Herein, we focused on targeting the BLM promoter G-quadruplex (BLM-G4) to inhibit the BLM signaling pathway. We first characterized the parallel BLM-G4 in the BLM promoter region. Subsequently, it is shown for the first time that BLM-G4 recruits phosphorylated signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (pSTAT1) to activate BLM expression. Importantly, two natural alkaloids, berberine (BER) and coptisine (COP), compete with STAT1 for binding to BLM-G4, thereby significantly suppressing BLM expression in colon cancer cells. The BER/COP-BLM-G4 complex structures were determined using nuclear magnetic resonance experiments, which provide valuable insights for the rational design of next-generation BLM-G4-targeting ligands. Beyond BLM regulation, the conjoint analysis of genome-wide STAT1-CUT&Tag-seq, G4-CUT&Tag-seq, and COP-RNA-seq demonstrated STAT1 as a general G4-binding transcription factor and COP as a pan-genomic G4 stabilizer. Furthermore, BER/COP exhibited a pronounced synergistic effect with olaparib in inducing colon cancer cell death by disrupting DNA repair pathways and intensifying DNA damage. Collectively, our findings reveal a novel epigenetic mechanism of BLM gene upregulation mediated by BLM-G4-STAT1 interaction and suggest that the combination therapy of G4 stabilizers with poly(ADP) ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors is a promising strategy for treating complex cancers.
Authors
Wang Wang, Zhang Zhang, Bian Bian, He He, Cheng Cheng, Li Li, Dickerhoff Dickerhoff, Liu Liu, Zhou Zhou, Bian Bian, Zheng Zheng, Yang Yang, Kong Kong, Wang Wang
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