Abstract
The natural product Honokiol exhibits robust antitumor activity against a range of cancers, and it has also received approval to undergo phase I clinical trial testing. We confrmed that honokiol can promote the apoptotic death of tumor cells through cell experiments. Then siRNA constructs specific for PIAS3, PIAS3 overexpression plasmid and the mutation of the STAT3 Tyr705 residue were used to confirm the mechanism of Honokiol-induced apoptosis. Finally, we confrmed that honokiol can promote PIAS3 upregulation, in turn suppressing STAT3 Tyr705 phosphorylation through the in vivo and in vitro experiments. Honokiol was ultimately found to reduce tumor cell viability by promoting apoptosis through a mechanism dependent on the ability of Honokiol to promote PIAS3 upregulation and the selective inhibition of p-STAT3 (Tyr705) without affecting p-STAT3 (Ser727) or p-STAT1 (Tyr701) levels. PIAS3 knockdown and overexpression in tumor cells altered STAT3 activation and associated DNA binding activity through the control of Tyr705 phosphorylation via PIAS3-STAT3 complex formation, ultimately shaping Honokiol-induced tumor cell apoptosis. Honokiol was also confirmed to significantly prolong the survival of mice bearing xenograft tumors in a PIAS3-dependent fashion. Together, these findings highlight a novel pathway through which Honokiol can promote PIAS3 upregulation, in turn suppressing STAT3 Tyr705 phosphorylation and promoting the apoptotic death of tumor cells.
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Funding
This study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China grant (81402945), Tianjin Key Medical Discipline (Specialty) Construction Project grant (TJYXZDXK-009A), and Tianjin Research Innovation Project for postgraduate students (2021YJSB265).
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Formal analysis, Writing-Original Draft, YF; Data Curation, Conceptualization, XZ; Visualization, Data Curation, XW; Methodology, SM; Software, Validation, YS; Validation, JK; Methodology, XL; Data Curation, ZS; Supervision, Resources, LL; Formal analysis, Investigation, LQ; Writing—Review & Editing, ZQ; Project administration, SZ; Supervision, XL; Supervision, Funding acquisition, HZ; Conceptualization, Supervision, Project administration, Writing-Review and Editing, XW. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Fei, Y., Zhang, X., Wang, X. et al. Upregulation of tumor suppressor PIAS3 by Honokiol promotes tumor cell apoptosis via selective inhibition of STAT3 tyrosine 705 phosphorylation. J Nat Med 78, 285–295 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11418-023-01757-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11418-023-01757-z