Antipsychotic Drug Trifluoperazine as a Potential Therapeutic Agent against Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Trifluoperazine (TFP), a typical antipsychotic primarily used for treating schizophrenia, exhibits anticancer effect on several types of cancer in recent years. Nevertheless, the effect of TFP on na-sopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is still unknown. In this study, we aimed to evaluate if TFP can be the potential therapeutic agent against NPC and to identify its underlying molecular mechanisms. We used four NPC cell lines, namely TW01, TW03, TW04, and BM, to assess the anticancer effects of TFP using cytotoxicity, wound healing, colony formation, and cell invasion assays. RNA se-quencing combined with Ingenuity Pathways Analysis was performed to identify the mechanism by which TFP influences NPC cells. Our data revealed that TFP decreased NPC cell viability in a dose-dependent manner. The invasion and migration of NPC cells were inhibited by TFP. RNA sequencing showed several anticancer molecular mechanisms after TFP administration. It is promising that the antipsychotic drug TFP can be used as a potential therapeutic regimen in NPC treatment in the future. Total RNA from NPC cells administered with or without TFP for 72 hours was ex-tracted using the RNeasy Mini Kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) in accordance with the manufacturer’s protocol. RNA was subjected to RNA-Seq analysis on a Novaseq 6000 in-strument by Biotools Co., Ltd.