1. Academic Validation
  2. Targeting of KOR by famotidine promotes OPC maturation differentiation and CNS remyelination via STAT3 signaling pathway

Targeting of KOR by famotidine promotes OPC maturation differentiation and CNS remyelination via STAT3 signaling pathway

  • Int J Biol Macromol. 2024 Apr 29;269(Pt 2):131964. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.131964.
Ming-Yue Bao 1 Chen-Yu Feng 1 Xiu-Qing Li 1 Yan He 1 Bing Han 1 Ya-Na Yang 1 Yuan Zhang 2 Xing Li 3
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Key Laboratory of Medicinal Resources and Natural Pharmaceutical Chemistry (Shaanxi Normal University), The Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710119, China.
  • 2 Key Laboratory of Medicinal Resources and Natural Pharmaceutical Chemistry (Shaanxi Normal University), The Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710119, China. Electronic address: yuanzhang@snnu.edu.cn.
  • 3 Key Laboratory of Medicinal Resources and Natural Pharmaceutical Chemistry (Shaanxi Normal University), The Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710119, China. Electronic address: lixing@snnu.edu.cn.
Abstract

This study aims to identify FDA-approved drugs that can target the kappa-opioid receptor (KOR) for the treatment of demyelinating diseases. Demyelinating diseases are characterized by myelin sheath destruction or formation that results in severe neurological dysfunction. Remission of this disease is largely dependent on the differentiation of oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) into mature oligodendrocytes (OLGs) in demyelinating lesions. KOR is an important regulatory protein and drug target for the treatment of demyelinating diseases. However, no drug targeting KOR has been developed due to the long clinical trials for drug discovery. Here, a structure-based virtual screening was applied to identify drugs targeting KOR among 1843 drugs of FDA-approved drug libraries, and famotidine was screen out by its high affinity cooperation with KOR as well as the clinical safety. We discovered that famotidine directly promoted OPC maturation and remyelination using the complementary in vitro and in vivo models. Administration of famotidine was not only effectively enhanced CNS myelinogenesis, but also promoted remyelination. Mechanically speaking, famotidine promoted myelinogenesis or remyelination through KOR/STAT3 signaling pathway. In general, our study provided evidence of new clinical applicability of famotidine for the treatment of demyelinating diseases for which there is currently no effective therapy.

Keywords

Famotidine; KOR-STAT3; Remyelination.

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