Benzethonium chloride suppresses lung cancer tumorigenesis through inducing p38-mediated cyclin D1 degradation.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, but effective therapeutics is limited. This study aims to identify novel anticancer strategy from a Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drug library consisting of 528 compounds. Benzethonium Chloride (BZN), a FDA-approved drug for anti-infective, was found to markedly induce apoptosis and inhibit proliferation and colony formation ability of lung cancer cells in dose- and time-dependent manners. BZN also enhanced the sensitivity of lung cancer cells to gefitinib, the first-line treatment strategy for selected lung cancer patients. Furthermore, BZN significantly delayed the growth of tumor xenografts in nude mice by increasing apoptosis and decreasing Ki-67 proliferation index, without obvious toxic effects to the vital organs of animals. Mechanistically, quantitative proteomics coupled with bioinformatics analyses and a series of functional assays demonstrated that BZN induced cell cycle arrest at G1 phase, and this was associated with an increase in p38-mediated phosphorylation at threonine 286 (T286) and accelerated degradation of cyclin D1. Our findings provide the first evidence that BZN could be a promising therapeutic agent in lung cancer treatment.