Stauprimide

Stauprimide is an indolocarbazole semi-synthetic small molecule. Stauprimide inhibits the nuclear localization of NME2, blocking and downregulating c-Myc expression. The expression of c-Myc is crucial for embryonic stem cell (ESC) self-renewal, and intervention by Stauprimide allows for more efficient lineage-specific differentiation. NME2 is also indicated to be upregulated in certain cancers, indicating further application for the blocking action of this small molecule. Stauprimide may be used to study the signaling involved in differentiation of ESC. It increased definitive endodermal markers but not markers for visceral/parietal endoderm or mesoderm. Stauprimide-differentiated cells could be further differentiated into hepatocytes. It also enabled differentiation into other cell lineages under varying differentiation conditions, including neurons, hematopoietic mesoderm, beating cardiac myocytes, and skeletal muscle.