cancers Article Suppression of Breast Cancer by Small Molecules That Block the Prolactin Receptor Dana C. Borcherding 1,† , Eric R. Hugo 1,† , Sejal R. Fox 1, Eric M. Jacobson 2, Brian G. Hunt 1, Edward J. Merino 3 and Nira Ben-Jonathan 1,* 1 Department of Cancer Biology, University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45267, USA;
[email protected] (D.C.B.);
[email protected] (E.R.H.);
[email protected] (S.R.F.);
[email protected] (B.G.H.) 2 Department of Internal Medicine, University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45267, USA;
[email protected] 3 Department of Chemistry, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45267, USA;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +1-513-558-4821; Fax: +1-513-558-4823 † Contributed equally to this investigation as first authors. Simple Summary: Unabated tumor growth, metastasis, and resistance to hormone therapy and/or to chemotherapy constitute serious impediments for combating breast cancer (BC). With the exception of targeted anti-HER2/neu therapy and combination therapies, there have been no radical changes in the standard of care for BC patients in the past two decades. In addition, there are only limited options for treating BC-derived brain metastases that cause high morbidity and mortality. This report describes the use of high throughput screening (HTS) for identifying novel small molecules that blocked the prolactin receptor (PRLR) and suppressed BC in a laboratory setting. These small Citation: Borcherding, D.C.; Hugo, molecules have a great potential to become effective therapeutics in patients with BC.