{"doi":"10.1016/j.redox.2023.102945","title":"A novel combination therapy with Cabozantinib and Honokiol effectively inhibits c-Met-Nrf2-induced renal tumor growth through increased oxidative stress","abstract":"Receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK), c-Met, is overexpressed and hyper active in renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Most of the therapeutic agents mediate cancer cell death through increased oxidative stress. Induction of c-Met in renal cancer cells promotes the activation of redox-sensitive transcription factor Nrf2 and cytoprotective heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), which can mediate therapeutic resistance against oxidative stress. c-Met/RTK inhibitor, Cabozantinib, has been approved for the treatment of advanced RCC. However, acquired drug resistance is a major hurdle in the clinical use of cabozantinib. Honokiol, a naturally occurring phenolic compound, has a great potential to downregulate c-Met-induced pathways. In this study, we found that a novel combination treatment with cabozantinib + Honokiol inhibits the growth of renal cancer cells in a synergistic manner through increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS); and it significantly facilitates apoptosis-and autophagy-mediated cancer cell death. Activation of c-Met can induce Rubicon (a negative regulator of autophagy) and p62 (an autophagy adaptor protein), which can stabilize Nrf2. By utilizing OncoDB online database, we found a positive correlation among c-Met, Rubicon, p62 and Nrf2 in renal cancer. Interestingly, the combination treatment significantly downregulated Rubicon, p62 and Nrf2 in RCC cells. In a tumor xenograft model, this combination treatment markedly inhibited renal tumor growth in vivo; and it is associated with decreased expression of Rubicon, p62, HO-1 and vessel density in the tumor tissues. Together, cabozantinib + Honokiol combination can significantly inhibit c-Met-induced and Nrf2-mediated anti-oxidant pathway in renal cancer cells to promote increased oxidative stress and tumor cell death.","journal":"Redox Biology","year":2023,"id":332480,"datarank":0.4943755299006494,"base_score":3.295836866004329,"endowment":3.295836866004329,"self_citation_contribution":0.4943755299006494,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.4943755299006494,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":26,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9646,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":366648,"name":"Murugabaskar Balan","orcid":"0000-0002-5569-2273","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":881269,"name":"Yuzuru Sasamoto","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":366645,"name":"Akash Sabarwal","orcid":"0000-0003-1760-4903","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":366649,"name":"Soumitro Pal","orcid":"0000-0002-9177-6634","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1058656,"name":"Laxminarayan Rawat","orcid":"0000-0001-8405-5276","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":66,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:09:30.139849Z","pmid":"37898101","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}