Cryptotanshinone suppresses key onco-proliferative and drug-resistant pathways of chronic myeloid leukemia by targeting STAT5 and STAT3 phosphorylation

C-Myc and signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) family proteins have been proposed to be important downstream genes of BCR-ABL, which characterizes most cases of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Here, we report a c-Myc pathway-targeted screening of seven natural anticancer compounds, in which we identified cryptotanshinone as a highly promising agent for CML therapy. Cryptotanshinone depletes c-Myc in CML by repressing the phosphorylation of STAT5. Decreased viability of K562 cells correlated with p-STAT5 suppression. Unexpectedly, imatinib activates rather than inhibits the phosphorylation of STAT3 in K562 cells. We demonstrated that cryptotanshinone, as a dual inhibitor of p-STAT5 and p-STAT3, can effectively block IL-6-mediated STAT3 activation and reverse BCR-ABL kinase-independent drug resistance. Moreover, we showed that the epigenetic rebalance between decreased BCR-ABL/STAT5/c-Myc and enhanced STAT3/multi-drug resistance (MDR) pathways is characteristic of the cancer stem cell-like property of K562/ADR. Simultaneously suppressing these two pathways using cryptotanshinone proves to be critical for the malignant network redress and MDR reversal of K562/ADR. These studies reveal the dual functions of cryptotanshinone that suppress key oncogenic proliferation and drug-resistant pathways in CML cells by targeting p-STAT5 and p-STAT3, providing a new strategy for CML therapy that takes advantage of natural products.