Here we explored the potential effect of PP121, a novel dual inhibitor of tyrosine and phosphoinositide kinases, against human esophageal cancer cells. We showed that PP121 exerted potent cytotoxic effect in primary (patient-derived) and established (Eca-109, TE-1 and TE-3 lines) esophageal cancer cells, possibly through activating caspase-3-dependnent apoptosis. PP121 was, however, non-cytotoxic to the normal human esophageal epithelial cells (EECs). At the molecular level, we showed that PP121 blocked Akt-mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) activation in esophageal cancer cells, which was restored by introducing a constitutively-active Akt (CA-Akt). Yet, CA-Akt only partly inhibited cytotoxicity by PP121 in Eca-109 cells. Importantly, we showed that PP121 inhibited nuclear factor kappa B (NF kappa B) signaling activation in esophageal cancer cells, which appeared independent of Akt-mTOR blockage. In vivo, oral administration of PP121 remarkably inhibited Eca-109 xenograft growth in nude mice, and significantly improved mice survival. Further, the immunohistochemistry (IHC) and Western blot assays analyzing xenografted tumors showed that PP121 inhibited Akt-mTOR and NF kappa B activations in vivo. Together, we demonstrate that PP121 potently inhibits esophageal cancer cells in vitro and in vivo, possibly through concurrently inhibiting Akt-mTOR and NF kappa B signalings. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.