Congratulations to Fu Jiamiao’s PhD gruaduation

On June 4th, 2021, Dr. Fu Jiamiao successfully defended her doctoral dissertation. During the Ph. D training under the supervising of Prof. Quan Jummin and Prof. Li Qinkai, Dr Fu has developed a  novel biguanide derivative, N-cystaminylbiguanide (MC001), which was found to inhibit mitochondrial complex I with higher potency while inducing lactate production to a similar degree as metformin.Furthermore, MC001 was found to efficiently inhibit a panel of colorectal cancer (CRC) cells in vitro and to suppress tumor growth in a HCT116 xenograft nude mouse model, while not enhancing lactate production relative to metformin, exhibiting a superior safety profile to other potent biguanides such as phenformin. Mechanistically, MC001 efficiently inhibits mitochondrial complex I, activates AMPK, and represses mTOR, leading to cell-cycle arrest and apoptosis. Notably, MC001 inhibits both oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) and glycolysis, which warrants further investigation in cancer treatment.

Edited by Hu Minqiang.