Tan HK

New High-Throughput Screening Identifies Compounds That Reduce Viability Specifically in Liver Cancer Cells That Express High Levels of SALL4 by Inhibiting Oxidative Phosphorylation

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Some oncogenes encode transcription factors, but few drugs have been successfully developed to block their activity specifically in cancer cells. The transcription factor SALL4 is aberrantly expressed in solid tumor and leukemia cells. We developed a screen to identify compounds that reduce the viability of liver cancer cells that express high levels of SALL4, and we investigated their mechanisms.

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Targeting cancer addiction for SALL4 by shifting its transcriptome with a pharmacologic peptide

Sal-like 4 (SALL4) is a nuclear factor central to the maintenance of stem cell pluripotency and is a key component in hepatocellular carcinoma, a malignancy with no effective treatment. In cancer cells, SALL4 associates with nucleosome remodeling deacetylase (NuRD) to silence tumor-suppressor genes, such as PTEN.

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