Anti-alcohol abuse drug disulfiram inhibits human PHGDH via disruption of its active tetrameric form through a specific cysteine oxidation

Sci Rep. 2019 Mar 18;9(1):4737. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-41187-0.

Abstract

Due to rising costs and the difficulty to identify new targets, drug repurposing appears as a viable strategy for the development of new anti-cancer treatments. Although the interest of disulfiram (DSF), an anti-alcohol drug, to treat cancer was reported for many years, it is only very recently that one anticancer mechanism-of-action was highlighted. This would involve the inhibition of the p97 segregase adaptor NPL4, which is essential for the turnover of proteins involved in multiple regulatory and stress-response intracellular pathways. However, recently DSF was also reported as one of the first phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase (PHGDH) inhibitors, a tetrameric enzyme catalyzing the initial step of the serine synthetic pathway that is highly expressed in numerous cancer types. Here, we investigated the structure-activity relationships (SAR) of PHGDH inhibition by disulfiram analogues as well as the mechanism of action of DSF on PHGDH via enzymatic and cell-based evaluation, mass spectrometric and mutagenesis experiments.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Alcohol Deterrents / pharmacology
  • Antineoplastic Agents / pharmacology*
  • Cysteine / metabolism*
  • Disulfiram / analogs & derivatives
  • Disulfiram / pharmacology*
  • Drug Repositioning
  • Humans
  • Oxidation-Reduction
  • Phosphoglycerate Dehydrogenase / antagonists & inhibitors*
  • Protein Multimerization / drug effects*
  • Structure-Activity Relationship

Substances

  • Alcohol Deterrents
  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Phosphoglycerate Dehydrogenase
  • Cysteine
  • Disulfiram