ZY-444 inhibits the growth and metastasis of prostate cancer by targeting TNFAIP3 through TNF signaling pathway

Prostate cancer is one of the most lethal malignancies, and androgen deprivation therapy remains the mainstay of treatment for prostate cancer patients. Although androgen deprivation can initially come to remission, the disease often develops into castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), which is still dependent on androgen receptor (AR) signaling and is related to a poor prognosis. Some success against CRPC has been achieved by drugs that target AR signaling, but secondary resistance uninterrupted emerges, and new therapies are urgently needed. In this study, we identified a potent small molecule compound, ZY-444, that suppressed PCa cells proliferation and metastasis, and inhibited tumor growth both in subcutaneous. Transcriptome sequencing analysis showed that TNFAIP3 was significantly elevated in prostate cancer cells after ZY-444 treatment. Further studies through overexpression of TNFAIP3 confirmed that TNFAIP3, as a direct target gene of ZY-444, contributes to the functions of ZY-444. In addition, we demonstrated the effects of TNFAIP3 on prostate cancer cell apoptosis, migration and proliferation to elucidate the mechanism of ZY-444. We found that TNFAIP3 inhibited the TNF signaling pathway, which could inhibit cell migration and proliferation and contribute to apoptosis. Overall, these findings highlighted TNFAIP3 as a tumor suppressor gene in the regulation of the progression and metastatic potential of prostate cancer and that targeting TNFAIP3 by ZY-444 might be a promising strategy for prostate cancer treatment.