Tunicamycin

Tunicamycin is a mixture of homologous nucleoside antibiotic that inhibits N-linked glycosylation and blocks GlcNAc phosphotransferase (GPT). Tunicamycin causes accumulation of unfolded proteins in cell endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and induces ER stress, and causes blocking of DNA synthesis and cell cycle arrest in G1 phase. Tunicamycin inhibits gram-positive bacteria, yeasts, fungi, and viruses and has anti-cancer activity[1][2][3].Tunicamycin increases exosome release in cervical cancer cells[4].

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[1]Hsu JL, et al. Tunicamycin induces resistance to camptothecin and etoposide in human hepatocellular carcinoma cells: role of cell-cycle arrest and GRP78. Naunyn Schmiedebergs Arch Pharmacol. 2009 Nov;380(5):373-82.|[2]Han C, et al. Endoplasmic reticulum stress inhibits cell cycle progression via induction of p27 in melanoma cells. Cell Signal. 2013 Jan;25(1):144-9.|[3]Hou H, et al. DPAGT1/Akt/ABCG2 pathway in mouse Xenograft models of human hepatocellular carcinoma. Mol Cancer Ther. 2013 Dec;12(12):2874-84.|[4]Kathleen M McAndrews, et al. Mechanisms associated with biogenesis of exosomes in cancer. Mol Cancer. 2019 Mar 30;18(1):52.