Abstract 4912: Targeting cyclin-dependent kinase 7 in gastric cancer

CDK7 is a member of the cyclin-dependent kinase family, which forms the CDK activating kinase (CAK) complex with Cyclin H and RING finger protein Mat1 to control cell cycle progression and transcription by phosphorylating other CDKs and RNA polymerase II. Upregulation of CDK7 frequently occurs in human gastric cancer (GC). In this study, we demonstrated that inhibition of CDK7 was able to induce cell growth inhibition, cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase and apoptosis with the increasing intracellular reactive oxidative species (ROS) levels. Pretreatment with ROS scavenger N-acety-L-cysteine partly reversed GC cell apoptosis induced by CDK7 inhibition. In the nude mice, inhibition of CDK7 also suppressed the growth of xenograft tumors of GC. Overall, our data showed that inhibition of CDK7 in GC presented outstanding anticancer effect in vitro and in vivo, suggesting that CDK7 is a potential therapeutic target for GC patients. Citation Format: Jia-Rong Huang, Wen-Ji Zhang, Qi-Wei Jiang, Yang Yang, Meng-Ning Wei, Zhi Shi. Targeting cyclin-dependent kinase 7 in gastric cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4912.