(PQA1) The antipsychotic thioridazine protects against medulloblastoma (MB): volu

描述（由申请人提供）：自20世纪40年代以来，吩噻嗪类药物（包括硫利达嗪）已被广泛用于治疗精神疾病。自20世纪70年代初以来，这些抗精神病药物的抗癌活性引起了临床医生和研究人员的兴趣。尽管硫利达嗪和其他几种吩噻嗪可以阻断心脏hERG电压门控钾通道，但它们仍在市场上销售，因为它们延长心脏QTc间期的风险超过了它们的有益作用。钾通道阻滞是这些抗精神病药物预防癌症的一种分子机制的可能性以前从未被考虑过。我们建议测试最初的假设，硫利达嗪保护对髓母细胞瘤（MB）的生长和转移，通过阻断EAG 2电压门控钾通道，上调在一个子集的MB的人类患者，特别是在转移性MB。具体地，我们假设（1）硫利达嗪阻断EAG 2通道防止MB细胞体积减少用于有丝分裂前凝聚（PMC），从而引起细胞周期停滞-那些冒险超过G2期的MB细胞遭遇有丝分裂灾难并通过凋亡而死亡，和（2）硫利达嗪阻断EAG 2通道减少了来自迁移MB细胞后缘的水流出，从而通过阻止细胞的后沿收缩（细胞运动所必需的局部体积调节）来干扰MB细胞迁移。为了验证我们的假设，即硫利达嗪阻断出现在有丝分裂MB细胞表面和迁移MB细胞后缘的EAG 2钾通道，以防止MB生长和转移，我们将进行体外和体内研究，以实验验证硫利达嗪的抗癌活性可以通过阿司咪唑（一种结构无关的EAG 2通道阻断剂）的药理学治疗来模拟的预测。我们将进一步测试这两种EAG 2通道阻断剂的抗癌活性是否类似于在体外和体内降低携带人MB异种移植物的小鼠的人MB细胞的EAG 2表达的作用，以及在小鼠MB模型中敲除EAG 2的作用。将进行额外的对照，以确认在小鼠模型中，由于阻断EAG 2通道而产生的硫利达嗪的抗癌活性被EAG 2的shRNA敲低或EAG 2的基因缺失所阻断。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The phenothiazine group of drugs including thioridazine has been widely prescribed for the treatment of psychiatric disorders since the 1940s. The anti-cancer activities of these antipsychotics have intrigued clinicians and researchers since the early 1970s. Whereas thioridazine and several other phenothiazines can block the cardiac hERG voltage-gated potassium channels, they remain on the market because their risk for prolonging the cardiac QTc interval is outweighed by their beneficial effects. The possibility that potassium channel block is one molecular mechanism by which these antipsychotics protect against cancer has never been considered before. We propose to test the original hypothesis that thioridazine protects against medulloblastoma (MB) growth and metastasis by blocking the EAG2 voltage-gated potassium channels that are upregulated in a subset of MBs of human patients, particularly in metastatic MBs. Specifically, we hypothesize that (1) thioridazine block of EAG2 channels prevents MB cell volume reduction for premitotic condensation (PMC) so as to cause cell cycle arrest - those MB cells that venture beyond the G2 phase encounter mitotic catastrophe and perish via apoptosis, and (2) thioridazine block of EAG2 channels reduces water efflux from the trailing edge of migrating MB cells, thereby interfering with MB cell migration by preventing the trailing edge of the cell from shrinking - a local volume regulation essential for cell movement. To test our hypothesis that thioridazine block of EAG2 potassium channels that appear on the surface of mitotic MB cells and on the trailing edge of migrating MB cells to protect against MB growth and metastasis, we will conduct in vitro and in vivo studies to experimentally validate the prediction that the anti-cancer activites of thioridazine can be mimicked by pharmacological treatment with astemizole, a structurally unrelated EAG2 channel blocker. We will further test whether the anti-cancer activities of these two EAG2 channel blockers resemble the effects of reducing EAG2 expression of human MB cells in vitro and in vivo - for mice bearing human MB xenograft, as well as the effects of knocking out Eag2 in mouse MB models. Additional controls will be conducted to confirm that the anti-cancer activities of thioridazine that arise from its block of EAG2 channels are occluded by shRNA knockdown of EAG2 or genetic deletion of Eag2 in mouse models.