Degradation of MYC by the mutant p53 reactivator drug, COTI-2 in breast cancer cells

TP53 (p53) and MYC are amongst the most frequently altered genes in cancer. Both are thus attractive targets for new anticancer therapies. Historically, however, both genes have proved challenging to target and currently there is no approved therapy against either. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the mutant p53 reactivating drug, COTI-2 on MYC. Total MYC, pSer62 MYC and pThr58 MYC were detected using Western blotting. Proteasome-mediated degradation was determined using the proteasome, inhibitor MG-132, while MYC half-life was measured using pulse chase experiments in the presence of cycloheximide. Cell proliferation was assessed using the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) method. Treatment of 5 mutant p53 breast cancer cell lines with COTI-2 resulted in dose-dependent MYC degradation. Addition of the proteasome inhibitor, MG132, rescued the degradation, suggesting that this proteolytic system was at least partly responsible for the inactivation of MYC. Using cycloheximide in pulse chase experiments, COTI-2 was found to reduce the half-life of MYC in 2 different mutant p53 breast cancer cell lines, i.e., from 34.8 to 18.6 min in MDA-MB-232 cells and from 29.6 to 20.3 min in MDA-MB-468 cells. Co-treatment with COTI-2 and the MYC inhibitor, MYCi975 resulted in synergistic growth inhibition in all 4 mutant p53 cell lines investigated. The dual ability of COTI-2 to reactivate mutant p53 and degrade MYC should enable this compound to have broad application as an anticancer drug. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10637-023-01368-1.