Inhibiting calcium-activated chloride channel ANO1/TMEM16A suppresses migration of tumor epithelial cells

Uncontrolled cell migration is a common feature of tumor metastasis and formation. Understanding the molecular targets critically involved in cell migration process can lead to the development of potentially novel therapeutic strategies for controlling invasion of tumor cells. In this study, we showed that calcium-activated chloride channel ANO 1/TMEM16A played an important role in cell migration and inhibition of ANO1 channel function suppressed the migration of tumor epithelial cells. Silencing ANO 1 by small hairpin RNA （shRNA） resulted in suppression of cell migration and invasiveness in cancer cell lines. In addition, pharmacological inhibition of ANO1 by the channel specific inhibitor T16Ain-A01 significantly slowed down the migration and invasion of tumor epithelial cells in a dose-dependent manner. Taken together, our findings have demonstrated that calcium-activated chloride channel ANO1 contributes to cell migration, and specific ANO1/TMEM16A inhibitors can be the promising candidate to develop new therapies for cancer metastasis.