By Neha MathurOct 4 2022Reviewed by Aimee Molineux In a recent study posted to the bioRxiv* server, researchers evaluated the anti-cancer therapeutic efficacy of two structurally-unrelated small molecules, PAV-617 and PAV-951.
About the study Since both viruses and cancers drive departure from homeostasis, researchers in the present study set out to determine whether previously identified assembly modulators had any therapeutic activity against cancer to propose a novel method for the development of cancer therapeutics.
Notably, the authors identified KAP1/TRIM28 as a common target of both PAV-617 and PAV-951 in mass spectrometry and western blot. Crosslinking experiments showed that KAP1 was present in a complex targeted by PAV-617 under native conditions but was lost upon denaturation. Perhaps, it was a distal component of the PAV-617 target multi-protein complex.
Conclusions The initial CFPSA capsid assembly screen identified novel targets relevant to viruses and cancer. Advancing the structure-activity-relationship of PAV-617 and PAV-951 could further help determine whether the antiviral and anti-cancer targets are identical or not.