Effectiveness of MEISi-2 treatment in prostate cancer cell lines

MEIS proteins are histrocally associated with tumorigenesis, metastasis and invasion in cancer. MEIS and associated PBX-HOX proteins may act as tumor suppressors or oncogenes in different cellular settings. Their expressions tend to be mis-regulated in various cancers. Bionformatical analyses suggest their upregulation in leukemia/lymphoma, thymoma, pancreas, glioma, and glioblastoma, and downregulation in cervical, uterine, rectum and colon cancers. However, every cancer type includes, at least, a subtype with high MEIS expression. In addition, studies highligh that MEIS proteins and associated factors may function as diagnostic or therapeutic biomarkers for various diseases. In this study, the function of MEIS1-2-3 proteins in prostate cancer (PCa) cell lines was investigated in vitro. In addition, MEIS inhibitors (MEISi-2), the first in its class, the MEIS homeodomain inhibitor has been shown to have a potent chemotherapeutic agent potential in PC-3, DU145, 22Rv-1 and LNCaP, prostate cancer cell lines. The effects on MEIS inhibitors in PCa cell lines are that reveal cytotoxicity and reduce cell viability. Also, intracellular ROS levels and MEIS protein expression were upregulated post MEISi-2 treatment. Also, MEISi-2 treatment resulted in slightly increase of Pca cell migration and the alteration of cell cycle of Pca cell lines. Overall, it is the first time that Pca cell lines necessitate basal MEIS1/2/3 expression for survical in vitro.