Stress Granule Core Protein-Derived Peptides Inhibit Assembly of Stress Granules and Improve Sorafenib Sensitivity in Cancer Cells

Abstract

Upon a variety of environmental stresses, eukaryotic cells usually recruit translational stalled mRNAs and RNA-binding proteins to form cytoplasmic condensates known as stress granules (SGs), which minimize stress-induced damage and promote stress adaptation and cell survival. SGs are hijacked by cancer cells to promote cell survival and are consequently involved in the development of anticancer drug resistance. However, the design and application of chemical compounds targeting SGs to improve anticancer drug efficacy have rarely been studied. Here, we developed two types of SG inhibitory peptides (SIPs) derived from SG core proteins Caprin1 and USP10 and fused with cell-penetrating peptides to generate TAT-SIP-C1/2 and SIP-U1-Antp, respectively. We obtained 11 SG-inducing anticancer compounds from cell-based screens and explored the potential application of SIPs in overcoming resistance to the SG-inducing anticancer drug sorafenib. We found that SIPs increased the sensitivity of HeLa cells to sorafenib via the disruption of SGs. Therefore, anticancer drugs which are competent to induce SGs could be combined with SIPs to sensitize cancer cells, which might provide a novel therapeutic strategy to alleviate anticancer drug resistance.