The Rho family of GTPases regulates diverse signal transduction pathways. One member, the cell division control protein 42 homolog (Cdc42), is involved in filopodia function, cell polarity, cell cycling, and other processes. CASIN is an indole-based small molecule that inhibits activation of the Cdc42 GTPase (IC50 = 2 μM for inhibiting actin assembly in PIP2-stimulated actin polymerization assays). This compound has been used to explore the role of Cdc42 in the division, survival, and differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells.
CASIN has been used as a cell division control protein 42 homolog (Cdc42) inhibitor:
- to study its effects on the stimulation of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in intestinal epithelial cells
- to study its effects on mice jejunum
- to study its effects on microbial adhesion-triggered endocytosis (MATE) vesicle morphology in segmented filamentous bacteria (SFB)-colonized mice
CASIN is an inhibitor of Cdc42 GTPase, a small GTPase of the Rho-subfamily that plays important roles in cytoskeleton organization, cell cycle progression, signal transduction, and vesicle trafficking. CASIN generated a rejuvenated phenotype of Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), reversing the aging-related and polarity phenotype of aged HSCs to that of young HSCs in vivo..
previous study found that treatment with casin at 5μm reduced the elevated level of active cdc42 observed in aged primitive hematopoietic cells to the level observed in young cells. however, casin treatment could not alter cell cycle status or apoptosis in aged lt-hscs. moreover, in response to the treatment of casin, lt-hscs from aged mice had a dose-dependent increase in the percentage of polarized cells, which is progressively indistinguishable from young cells. in addition, though casin acted on cdc42 activity transiently, the increase in the percentage of polar cells among aged lt-hscs that were induced by casin could remain stable for at least up to 6 hr after the withdrawal of casin [1].
rat in-vivo study showed that casin could generated a rejuvenated phenotype of hematopoietic stem cells (hscs), reversing the aging-related and polarity phenotype of aged hscs to that of young hscs [1].
[1] florian mc,drr k,niebel a,daria d,schrezenmeier h,rojewski m,filippi md,hasenberg a,gunzer m,scharffetter-kochanek k,zheng y,geiger h. cdc42 activity regulates hematopoietic stem cell aging and rejuvenation. cell stem cell.2012 may 4;10(5):520-30.
