JG6, a novel marine-derived oligosaccharide, suppresses breast cancer metastasis via binding to cofilin.

// Xun Huang 1,* , Danni Sun 1,* , Qiuming Pan 1 , Weiwei Wen 1 , Yi Chen 1 , Xianliang Xin 1 , Min Huang 1 , Jian Ding 1 and Meiyu Geng 1 1 Division of Anti-Tumor Pharmacology, State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, P.R.China * These authors contributed equally to this work Correspondence: Meiyu Geng,, email: // Jian Ding, email: // Keywords : JG6, cofilin, actin, migration, metastasis Received : February 25, 2014 Accepted : May 12, 2014 Published : May 12, 2014 Abstract Cofilin, an actin-binding protein which disassembles actin filaments, plays an important role in invasion and metastasis. Here, we discover that JG6, an oligomannurarate sulfate, binds to cofilin, suppresses the migration of human breast cancer cells and cancer metastasis in breast cancer xenograft model. Mechanistically, JG6 occupies actin-binding sites of cofilin, thereby disrupting cofilin modulated actin turnover. Our results highlight the significance of cofilin in cancer and suggest JG6, a cofilin inhibitor, to treat metastatic cancer.