- Soragni, Alice;
- Janzen, Deanna M;
- Johnson, Lisa M;
- Lindgren, Anne G;
- Nguyen, Anh Thai-Quynh;
- Tiourin, Ekaterina;
- Soriaga, Angela B;
- Lu, Jing;
- Jiang, Lin;
- Faull, Kym F;
- Pellegrini, Matteo;
- Memarzadeh, Sanaz;
- Eisenberg, David S
Half of all human cancers lose p53 function by missense mutations, with an unknown fraction of these containing p53 in a self-aggregated amyloid-like state. Here we show that a cell-penetrating peptide, ReACp53, designed to inhibit p53 amyloid formation, rescues p53 function in cancer cell lines and in organoids derived from high-grade serous ovarian carcinomas (HGSOC), an aggressive cancer characterized by ubiquitous p53 mutations. Rescued p53 behaves similarly to its wild-type counterpart in regulating target genes, reducing cell proliferation and increasing cell death. Intraperitoneal administration decreases tumor proliferation and shrinks xenografts in vivo. Our data show the effectiveness of targeting a specific aggregation defect of p53 and its potential applicability to HGSOCs.