NUPR1 inhibition for treating cancer

The present invention relates to the treatment of a tumor selected from the group consisting of pancreatic cancer, liver cancer, melanoma, colon cancer, glioblastoma, osteosarcoma, prostate cancer and breast cancer, more particularly pancreatic cancer. The inventors found a novel family compounds of formula (I) able to treat a variety of cancers by inhibiting NUPR1, a stress-inducible 82-amino-acid-long, intrinsically disordered member of the AT-hook family of chromatin proteins. Thus, the present invention relates to a compound of formula (I) for its use in the treatment of a tumor selected from the group consisting of pancreatic cancer, liver cancer, melanoma, colon cancer, glioblastoma, osteosarcoma, prostate cancer and breast cancer. In particular, the inventors tested compounds of formula (I) on four well characterized primary pancreatic cancer-derived cells 02.063 and LIPC (Basal subtype), Foic8b (derived from a liver metastasis) and HN14 (Classical subtype), as well as on other cellular lines derived from different tumors, i.e. U87 (glioblastoma), A375 and B16 (melanoma), U20S and SaOS (osteosarcoma), HT29, SK-CO-l and LS174T (colon cancer), HepG2 (hepatocarcinoma), PC3 (prostate) and MDA-MB-231 (breast cancer). The compounds