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Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) activation has been reported to be associated with cell progression and metastasis in a wide variety of cancer cells. Target treatment by inhibiting FAK has achieved remarkable effects in several cancers, but the effect in ovarian cancer has not been reported. In this study, we determined the role and the underlying molecular mechanism of BI853520, a novel small chemical FAK inhibitor against ovarian cancer. Results show that phosphorylated FAK tyrosine 397 (p-FAK Y397) is highly expressed in ovarian cancer tumor tissues and cell lines (SKOV3 and OVCAR3). BI853520 treatment greatly suppresses cell proliferation, viability, migration, invasion, decreases anchorage-independent growth and motility in vitro. Besides, treatment with BI853520 increases biologic effects following combination with chemotherapy in ovarian cancer cell lines. In addition, BI853520 suppresses EMT in ovarian cancer cell lines. Mechanically, BI853520 treatment downregulates the activation of PI3K/AKT/mTOR signal pathway. Finally, mice model experiments confirm BI853520 treatment dramatically reduces tumor growth in vivo and suppresses the activation of PI3K/AKT/mTOR signal pathway. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that focal adhesion kinase inhibitor BI853520 inhibits cell proliferation, migration, invasion and EMT process through PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway in ovarian cancer, and BI853520 can offer a preclinical rationale for targeting repression of FAK in ovarian cancer.

A facile template-free solvothermal method without any additional alkali was developed to fabricate a 3D hierarchical hollow microsphere precursor, followed by annealing in air, leading to a novel 3D hierarchical NiCo2O4 hollow microsphere material, which is composed of mesoporous (16.1 nm) ultrathin nanosheets (∼11–21 nm) consisting of ultrafine NiCo2O4 nanoparticles (11.9 nm). This 3D hierarchical NiCo2O4 nanosheet hollow microsphere material possesses a high specific surface area (93.4 m2 g−1) and mesoporosity, and thus superior electrochemical performance as an advanced electrode material. For methanol electrooxidation, the 3D hierarchical NiCo2O4 nanosheet hollow microsphere displays much higher electrocatalytic activity (95 A g−1, at 0.6 V), lower overpotential (0.27 V, vs. SCE), and higher stability compared with the 3D hierarchical NiCo2O4 nanosheet solid microspheres, Co3O4 and NiO microspheres. For supercapacitors, the NiCo2O4 hollow microsphere exhibits excellent specific capacitance of 1701 F g−1 at 1 A g−1, excellent rate capability (61.5% retention at 15 A g−1), and good electrochemical stability with 78.2% retention after 1000 charge–discharge cycles even at a high current density of 10 A g−1. These findings can be explained by the unique integral characteristics of 3D NiCo2O4 hollow spheres with high electron conductivity, large surface area and numerous open spaces between neighboring mesoporous ultrathin nanosheets, which can offer many facile diffusion paths for ion/electrolyte and greatly improve the electron/ion transfer within the electrode and at the electrode–electrolyte interfaces.