1‐Benzylimidazole attenuates the stemness of breast cancer cells through partially targeting CYP4Z1

Abstract

AbstractCytochrome P450 (CYP) 4Z1 (CYP4Z1) has recently garnered much interest as its expression predicts a poor prognosis and as a oncogene in breast cancer, and overexpressed in other many cancers. We previously showed that CYP4Z1 acts as a promoter of cancer stem cells (CSCs) to facilitate the occurrence and development of breast cancer. Here, RNA sequencing found that 1‐benzylimidazole (1‐Benzy) held a preferable correlation with breast cancer and suppressed the expression of CSC makers. Further functional experiments, including mammary spheroid formation, wound‐healing, transwell‐invasion, detection of tumor initiation, and metastatic ability, showed that 1‐Benzy suppressed the stemness and metastasis of breast cancer cells. Additionally, we further demonstrated that CYP4Z1 is necessary for 1‐Benzy‐mediated suppression on breast cancer stemness and 1‐Benzy exerted a weaker effect in breast cancer cells with CYP4Z1 knockdown. Taken together, our data suggest that 1‐Benzy might be a potential drug suppressing breast cancer stemness via targeting CYP4Z1.