Key result
Topobexin partially phenocopies the transcriptional effects of TOP2B deletion in hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes.
Why the study?
The role of DNA topoisomerase II beta (TOP2B) in cardiomyocyte differentiation was poorly understood.
Pharmacological inhibition of TOP2B with topobexin partially phenocopies genetic deletion in human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes, offering a novel model to study anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity.
Topobexin partially mimics TOP2B deletion in hiPSC-cardiomyocytes; hypothesis-generating for anthracycline cardiotoxicity models, needs in vivo validation.
The role of DNA topoisomerase II beta (TOP2B) in cardiomyocyte differentiation is poorly understood. To address this, Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) were differentiated into cardiomyocytes (CM) that are wildtype or contain a genomic deletion of Topoisomerase 2B (BKO). Both WT and BKO hiPSC could be induced to differentiate into sheets of beating cardiomyocytes. BKO hiPSC take slightly longer to differentiate into sheets of beating CM than WT iPSC. RNA was prepared from both undifferentiated and differentiated WT and BKO hiPSC. RNA seq was used to examine gene expression changes when the WT and BKO hiPSC were differentiated into CM. Gene expression changes following differentiation of BKO cells were largely similar to those in WT cells. In addition, the differentiated WT CM were treated with dexrazoxane (ICRF-187), a TOP2 catalytic inhibitor that targets both TOP2A and TOP2B, or topobexin, a new TOP2B selective catalytic inhibitor. Topobexin inhibition partially phenocopied a TOP2B deletion and thereby providing an alternative to TOP2B gene knockout in many cell lines. In future, hiPSC derived CM with and without TOP2B and inhibition by topobexin ex vivo CM could be used to study anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity and to screen for cardioprotectants.
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Keresteš et al. (2026) studied Cardiomyocyte biology and cardiotoxicity. Topobexin and TOP2B knockout vs. Wild-type (WT) untreated cardiomyocytes was evaluated on Differential gene expression (transcript abundance). Topobexin, a selective TOP2B catalytic inhibitor, partially phenocopied the transcriptional changes observed with genetic deletion of TOP2B in hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes.
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