Carcinogenesis
-
We recently identified PRIMA-1 as a low molecular weight compound that restores tumor suppressor function to mutant p53 proteins and has anti-tumor activity in vivo (1). Here we report the statistical analysis of the effect of PRIMA-1 on a panel of human tumor cell lines using information available in a database at the Developmental Therapeutics Program of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). We extracted growth inhibition profiles for PRIMA-1 and 44 known anticancer agents, p53 status of cell lines, population doubling time, and level of p53 protein expression from the NCI database. ⋯ In contrast, none of several known anticancer drugs showed such preference. PRIMA-1 inhibited the growth of cell lines derived from various human tumor types in a mutant p53-dependent manner. This distinguishes PRIMA-1 from known anticancer drugs and supports the idea that PRIMA-1 can serve as a lead for the development of novel therapeutic compounds.