Structural basis of noscapine activation for tubulin binding

Noscapine is a natural alkaloid that is used as an antitussive medicine. However, it also acts as a weak anticancer agent in certain in vivo models through a mechanism that is largely unknown. Here, we performed structural studies and show that the cytotoxic agent 7A-O-demethoxy-amino-noscapine (7A-...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Oliva, María A., Prota, Andrea E., Rodríguez-Salarichs, Javier, Wenxin, Gu, Bennani, Y. L., Jiménez-Barbero, Jesús, Bargsten, Katja, Canales, Ángeles, Steinmetz, Michel O., Díaz, José Fernando
Tipo de documento: artigo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Data de publicação:2020
País:España
Recursos:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositório:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/216841
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/216841
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:Noscapine
Tubulin
Microtubules
Colchicine
Anticancer drugs
Descrição
Resumo:Noscapine is a natural alkaloid that is used as an antitussive medicine. However, it also acts as a weak anticancer agent in certain in vivo models through a mechanism that is largely unknown. Here, we performed structural studies and show that the cytotoxic agent 7A-O-demethoxy-amino-noscapine (7A-aminonoscapine) binds to the colchicine site of tubulin. We suggest that the 7A-methoxy group of noscapine prevents binding to tubulin due to a steric clash of the compound with the T5-loop of α-tubulin. We further propose that the anticancer activity of noscapine arises from a bioactive metabolite that binds to the colchicine site of tubulin to induce mitotic arrest through a microtubule cytoskeleton-based mechanism.