Cytotoxic effect of a family of Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor antagonists in colorectal and pancreatic cancer cell lines

Recent studies report an interesting role of Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptors (PPAR) antagonists in different tumor models, being these compounds able to perturb metabolism and viability in cancer cells. In this work the identification of a novel PPAR antagonist, showing inhibitory activity on PPARa and a weaker antagonism on PPARg, is described. The activity of this compound and of a series of chemical analogues was investigated in selected tumor cell lines, expressing both PPARa and PPARg. Data obtained show a dose-dependent cytotoxic effect of the novel PPAR antagonist in colorectal and pancreatic cancer models.