A Novel Screen for Expression Regulators of the Telomeric Protein TRF2 Identified Small Molecules That Impair TRF2 Dependent Immunosuppression and Tumor Growth

Telomeric repeat-binding factor 2 (TRF2) is a subunit of the shelterin protein complex, which binds to and protects telomeres from unwanted DNA damage response (DDR) activation. TRF2 expression plays a pivotal role in aging and cancer, being downregulated during cellular senescence and overexpressed during oncogenesis. Cancers overexpressing TRF2 often exhibit a poor prognosis. In cancer cells, TRF2 plays multiple functions, including telomere protection and non-cell autonomous roles, promoting neo-angiogenesis and immunosuppression. We present here an original screening strategy, which enables identification of small molecules that decrease or increase TRF2 expression. By screening a small library of Food and Drug Agency (FDA)-approved drugs, we identified two molecules (AR-A014418 and alexidine·2HCl) that impaired tumor growth, neo-angiogenesis and immunosuppression by downregulating TRF2 expression in a mouse xenograft model. These results support the chemotherapeutic strategy of downregulating TRF2 expression to treat aggressive human tumors and validate this cell-based assay capable of screening for potential anti-cancer and anti-aging molecules by modulating TRF2 expression levels.