Prodigiosin inhibits proliferation and induces apoptosis through influencing amino acid metabolism in multiple myeloma.

The recurrence of drug-resistant and expensive treatment drugs are major causes of the low survival rate of multiple myeloma (MM) patients. Exploring a safe, effective, low-cost and novel drug treatment for MM is a promising strategy to relieve the burden of MM patients. In this study, we found that prodigiosin could inhibit MM cell proliferation and induce MM cell apoptosis, however, it had a lesser cytotoxic effect on normal B cells within the IC50 range of MM cells. In addition, prodigiosin could inhibit the growth of xenograft MM cells in mice. Transcriptomics and targeted amino acid metabolomics confirmed that prodigiosin could regulate amino acid metabolism, and decrease in amino acid utilization by down-regulated aminoacyl tRNA synthetases expression, resulting in slower growth of MM. In conclusion, prodigiosin exerts anticancer effects on MM cells by interfering with the use of amino acids, indicating its potential novel therapeutic application in MM.