A short peptide derived from gN helix domain of FGF8b suppressing growth of human prostate cancer cells.
Li T, Luo W, Wang R, He D, Yu Y, Wang W, Chen X, Gao S, Li Q, Li X, Wu X. Cancer Lett. 2013 Jun 14. pii: S0304-3835(13)00451-5. doi: 10.1016/j.canlet.2013.06.001. [Epub ahead of print]

Previous studies have shown that fibroblast growth factor 8b (FGF8b) is up-regulated in a large proportion of prostate cancer, and plays a key role in prostate carcinogenesis. In this study, we first designed and synthesized a gN helix domain derived short peptide (named 8b-13) based on the FGF8b-FGFR structure analysis. The synthetic peptides inhibited proliferation of prostate cancer cell lines including PC-3 and DU-145 cells. Further investigations indicated that 8b-13 arrested the cell cycle at the G0/G1 phase, reduced the activations of Erk1/2, P38, and Akt cascades, and down-regulated the expression of G1/S-specific cyclinD1. Suppression of DNA synthesis and G1 to S phase transition caused by regulating the expressions of proteins related to proliferation and cell cycle progression may partly contribute to the inhibitory effect of 8b-13 peptides on the cellular proliferation. Our results not only suggest 8b-13 has a potential antitumor effect on prostate cancer, but also confirm the essential role of the gN helix domain in mediating the activities of FGF8b.