Bisleuconothine A, a bisindole alkaloid, inhibits colorectal cancer cell in vitro and in vivo targeting Wnt signaling

Wnt signaling pathway is aberrantly activated in a variety of cancers, especially in colorectal cancer and small molecule antagonists of Wnt/beta-catenin signaling are attractive candidates for developing effective therapeutics. In the present study, we identified Bisleuconothine A, a bisindole alkaloid with an eburnane-aspidosperma type skeleton, as a novel and selective Wnt signaling inhibitor by using a cell-based luciferase assay system. Our study found that Bisleuconothine A down-regulated the endogenous Wnt target gene expression through promoting phosphorylation of beta-catenin and the subsequent inhibition of its nuclear translocation in HCT116 and SW480 colorectal cancer cells. In vitro, Bisleuconothine A inhibited cell proliferation through induction of apoptosis by increasing the cleavage of caspases in HCT116 and SW480 colorectal cancer cells. Moreover, in vivo, Bisleuconothine A dramatically suppressed tumor growth in HCT116 Xenograft. And further analysis showed that Bisleuconothine A suppressed the Wnt target gene expression in HCT116 Xenograft, which was associated with up-regulation of beta-catenin phosphorylation and subsequent Wnt signaling inhibition. Taken together, our study indicated that bisindole alkaloids could be included as a new chemotype of small-molecule Wnt signaling inhibitors, and have great potential to be further developed for anti-tumor agents.