Differential proteomics of HeLa cells treated with PDS for 24 hours and untreated HeLa cells

Pyridostatin (PDS) is a well-known G-quadruplex (G4) inducer and stabilizer, yet its target genes have remained unclear. Herein, combining mass spectrometry based proteomics strategy with bioinformatics analysis, we revealed that PDS significantly downregulated 22 proteins, of which the genes contain rich G4 potential sequences, in HeLa cancer cells, consequently upregulating 16 proteins remarkably. The PDS-regulated proteins appeared to work synergistically to activate cyclin and cell cycle regulation, and to restrain the inhibition of ARE-mediated mRNA decay pathway, suggesting that PDS itself is not a potential anticancer agent, at least towards HeLa cancer.