HLY78 is a positive modulator of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway.

The evolutionarily conserved Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway has important roles in embryonic development and human diseases. During embryogenesis, the Wnt signaling pathway regulates cell fate specification, differentiation, proliferation and survival. Inappropriate regulation of the Wnt signaling pathway is usually related to the progression of various human diseases including cancer, familial exudative vitreoretinopathy, Alzheimer’s disease, and bone formation disorders.

In vitro: By screening a synthetic chemical library of lycorine derivatives, HLY78 was identified as an activator of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, which acted in a Wnt ligand-dependent manner. HLY78 was found to be alble to target the DIX domain of Axin and potentiate the Axin-LRP6 association, therefore leading to the promotion of LRP6 phosphorylation and Wnt signaling transduction. In addition, this study also identified the critical residues on Axin for HLY78 binding and suggested that HLY78 might weaken the autoinhibition of Axin1 [1].

In vivo: In-vivo study showed that HLY78 could synergistically act with Wnt in the embryonic development of zebrafish and increase the expression of the conserved hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) markers, cmyb and runx1, in zebrafish embryos [1].

Clinical trial: So far, no clinical study has been conducted.

Reference:
[1] Wang, S. ,Yin, J.,Chen, D., et al. Small-molecule modulation of Wnt signaling via modulating the Axin-LRP5/6 interaction. Nature Chemical Biology 9, 579-585 (2013).