Dual Targeting of PI3K and HDAC by CUDC-907 Inhibits Pediatric Neuroblastoma Growth

Abstract

The dysregulation of PI3K, HDACs, and MYCN are well known for promoting multiple cancer types, including neuroblastoma (NB). Targeting the upstream regulators of MYCN, including HDACs and PI3K, was shown to suppress cancer growth. In the present study, we analyze different NB patient datasets to reveal that high PI3K and HDAC expression is correlated with overall poor NB patient survival. High PI3K level is also found to be associated with high MYCN level and NB stage progression. We repurpose a dual inhibitor CUDC-907 as a single agent to directly target both PI3K and HDAC in NB. We use in vitro methodologies to determine the efficacy and selectivity of CUDC-907 using six NB and three control fibroblast cell lines. Our results show that CUDC-907 significantly inhibits NB proliferation and colony growth, induces apoptosis, blocks cell cycle progression, inhibits MYCN, and enhances H3K9Ac levels by inhibiting the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway and HDAC function. Furthermore, CUDC-907 significantly inhibits NB tumor growth in a 3D spheroid tumor model that recapitulates the in vivo tumor growth. Overall, our findings highlight that the dual inhibition of PI3K and HDAC by CUDC-907 is an effective therapeutic strategy for NB and other MYC-dependent cancers.