Verteporfin induces apoptosis and reduces the stem cell-like properties in Neuroblastoma tumour-initiating cells through inhibition of the YAP/TAZ pathway

Abstract

Data and manuscript. We evaluated the pharmacological targeting of YAP/TAZ with the YAP/TAZ-TEAD inhibitor Verteporfin (VP) in Tumour Initiating Cells (TICs) derived from High-Risk Neuroblastoma patients. VP treatment suppresses YAP/TAZ expression, induces apoptosis and causes the re-organization of the cytoskeleton reducing cells migration and clonogenic ability. Moreover, VP reduces the percentage of side population cells and ABC transporters involved in drug resistance, and the percentage of stem cell subpopulations CD133+ and CD44+ of TICs. Finally, we demonstrated that VP sensitizes TICs to the standard drugs used for neuroblastoma therapy etoposide and cis-platin opening the way to use VP as drug repositioning candidate for recurrent neuroblastoma