1
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Muraro E, Montico B, Lum B, Colizzi F, Giurato G, Salvati A, Guerrieri R, Rizzo A, Comaro E, Canzonieri V, Anichini A, Del Vecchio M, Mortarini R, Milione M, Weisz A, Pizzichetta MA, Simpson F, Dolcetti R, Fratta E, Sigalotti L. Antibody dependent cellular cytotoxicity-inducing anti-EGFR antibodies as effective therapeutic option for cutaneous melanoma resistant to BRAF inhibitors. Front Immunol 2024; 15:1336566. [PMID: 38510242 PMCID: PMC10950948 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1336566] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2023] [Accepted: 02/13/2024] [Indexed: 03/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Introduction About 50% of cutaneous melanoma (CM) patients present activating BRAF mutations that can be effectively targeted by BRAF inhibitors (BRAFi). However, 20% of CM patients exhibit intrinsic drug resistance to BRAFi, while most of the others develop adaptive resistance over time. The mechanisms involved in BRAFi resistance are disparate and globally seem to rewire the cellular signaling profile by up-regulating different receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs), such as the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). RTKs inhibitors have not clearly demonstrated anti-tumor activity in BRAFi resistant models. To overcome this issue, we wondered whether the shared up-regulated RTK phenotype associated with BRAFi resistance could be exploited by using immune weapons as the antibody-dependent cell cytotoxicity (ADCC)-mediated effect of anti-RTKs antibodies, and kill tumor cells independently from the mechanistic roots. Methods and results By using an in vitro model of BRAFi resistance, we detected increased membrane expression of EGFR, both at mRNA and protein level in 4 out of 9 BRAFi-resistant (VR) CM cultures as compared to their parental sensitive cells. Increased EGFR phosphorylation and AKT activation were observed in the VR CM cultures. EGFR signaling appeared dispensable for maintaining resistance, since small molecule-, antibody- and CRISPR-targeting of EGFR did not restore sensitivity of VR cells to BRAFi. Importantly, immune-targeting of EGFR by the anti-EGFR antibody cetuximab efficiently and specifically killed EGFR-expressing VR CM cells, both in vitro and in humanized mouse models in vivo, triggering ADCC by healthy donors' and patients' peripheral blood cells. Conclusion Our data demonstrate the efficacy of immune targeting of RTKs expressed by CM relapsing on BRAFi, providing the proof-of-concept supporting the assessment of anti-RTK antibodies in combination therapies in this setting. This strategy might be expected to concomitantly trigger the crosstalk of adaptive immune response leading to a complementing T cell immune rejection of tumors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elena Muraro
- Immunopathology and Cancer Biomarkers, Department of Translational Research, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico di Aviano (CRO) IRCCS, Aviano, Italy
| | - Barbara Montico
- Immunopathology and Cancer Biomarkers, Department of Translational Research, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico di Aviano (CRO) IRCCS, Aviano, Italy
| | - Benedict Lum
- Frazer Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Francesca Colizzi
- Immunopathology and Cancer Biomarkers, Department of Translational Research, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico di Aviano (CRO) IRCCS, Aviano, Italy
| | - Giorgio Giurato
- Laboratory of Molecular Medicine and Genomics, Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry "Scuola Medica Salernitana", University of Salerno, Baronissi, Italy
- Genome Research Center for Health - CRGS, Baronissi, Italy
| | - Annamaria Salvati
- Laboratory of Molecular Medicine and Genomics, Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry "Scuola Medica Salernitana", University of Salerno, Baronissi, Italy
- Genome Research Center for Health - CRGS, Baronissi, Italy
- Molecular Pathology and Medical Genomics Program, AOU 'S. Giovanni di Dio e Ruggi d'Aragona' University of Salerno and Rete Oncologica Campana, Salerno, Italy
| | - Roberto Guerrieri
- Immunopathology and Cancer Biomarkers, Department of Translational Research, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico di Aviano (CRO) IRCCS, Aviano, Italy
| | - Aurora Rizzo
- Immunopathology and Cancer Biomarkers, Department of Translational Research, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico di Aviano (CRO) IRCCS, Aviano, Italy
| | - Elisa Comaro
- Immunopathology and Cancer Biomarkers, Department of Translational Research, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico di Aviano (CRO) IRCCS, Aviano, Italy
| | - Vincenzo Canzonieri
- Division of Pathology, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico di Aviano (CRO) IRCCS, Aviano, Italy
- Department of Medical, Surgical and Health Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
| | - Andrea Anichini
- Human Tumors Immunobiology Unit, Department of Research, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy
| | - Michele Del Vecchio
- Melanoma Unit, Department of Medical Oncology, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy
| | - Roberta Mortarini
- Human Tumors Immunobiology Unit, Department of Research, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy
| | - Massimo Milione
- Pathology Unit 1, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy
| | - Alessandro Weisz
- Laboratory of Molecular Medicine and Genomics, Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry "Scuola Medica Salernitana", University of Salerno, Baronissi, Italy
- Genome Research Center for Health - CRGS, Baronissi, Italy
- Molecular Pathology and Medical Genomics Program, AOU 'S. Giovanni di Dio e Ruggi d'Aragona' University of Salerno and Rete Oncologica Campana, Salerno, Italy
| | - Maria Antonietta Pizzichetta
- Division of Medical Oncology, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico di Aviano (CRO) IRCCS, Aviano, Italy
- Department of Dermatology, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
| | - Fiona Simpson
- Frazer Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Riccardo Dolcetti
- Translational and Clinical Immunotherapy, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
- Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
- Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Elisabetta Fratta
- Immunopathology and Cancer Biomarkers, Department of Translational Research, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico di Aviano (CRO) IRCCS, Aviano, Italy
| | - Luca Sigalotti
- Oncogenetics and Functional Oncogenomics Unit, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico di Aviano (CRO) IRCCS, Aviano, Italy
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2
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Yang Y, Li P. GPDRP: a multimodal framework for drug response prediction with graph transformer. BMC Bioinformatics 2023; 24:484. [PMID: 38105227 PMCID: PMC10726525 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-023-05618-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2023] [Accepted: 12/13/2023] [Indexed: 12/19/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND In the field of computational personalized medicine, drug response prediction (DRP) is a critical issue. However, existing studies often characterize drugs as strings, a representation that does not align with the natural description of molecules. Additionally, they ignore gene pathway-specific combinatorial implication. RESULTS In this study, we propose drug Graph and gene Pathway based Drug response prediction method (GPDRP), a new multimodal deep learning model for predicting drug responses based on drug molecular graphs and gene pathway activity. In GPDRP, drugs are represented by molecular graphs, while cell lines are described by gene pathway activity scores. The model separately learns these two types of data using Graph Neural Networks (GNN) with Graph Transformers and deep neural networks. Predictions are subsequently made through fully connected layers. CONCLUSIONS Our results indicate that Graph Transformer-based model delivers superior performance. We apply GPDRP on hundreds of cancer cell lines' bulk RNA-sequencing data, and it outperforms some recently published models. Furthermore, the generalizability and applicability of GPDRP are demonstrated through its predictions on unknown drug-cell line pairs and xenografts. This underscores the interpretability achieved by incorporating gene pathways.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yingke Yang
- School of Mathematics and Statistics, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, 471000, China
| | - Peiluan Li
- School of Mathematics and Statistics, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, 471000, China.
- Longmen Laboratory, Luoyang, 471003, China.
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3
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Chen D, Wang X, Zhu H, Jiang Y, Li Y, Liu Q, Liu Q. Predicting anticancer synergistic drug combinations based on multi-task learning. BMC Bioinformatics 2023; 24:448. [PMID: 38012551 PMCID: PMC10680313 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-023-05524-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2023] [Accepted: 10/09/2023] [Indexed: 11/29/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND The discovery of anticancer drug combinations is a crucial work of anticancer treatment. In recent years, pre-screening drug combinations with synergistic effects in a large-scale search space adopting computational methods, especially deep learning methods, is increasingly popular with researchers. Although achievements have been made to predict anticancer synergistic drug combinations based on deep learning, the application of multi-task learning in this field is relatively rare. The successful practice of multi-task learning in various fields shows that it can effectively learn multiple tasks jointly and improve the performance of all the tasks. METHODS In this paper, we propose MTLSynergy which is based on multi-task learning and deep neural networks to predict synergistic anticancer drug combinations. It simultaneously learns two crucial prediction tasks in anticancer treatment, which are synergy prediction of drug combinations and sensitivity prediction of monotherapy. And MTLSynergy integrates the classification and regression of prediction tasks into the same model. Moreover, autoencoders are employed to reduce the dimensions of input features. RESULTS Compared with the previous methods listed in this paper, MTLSynergy achieves the lowest mean square error of 216.47 and the highest Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.76 on the drug synergy prediction task. On the corresponding classification task, the area under the receiver operator characteristics curve and the area under the precision-recall curve are 0.90 and 0.62, respectively, which are equivalent to the comparison methods. Through the ablation study, we verify that multi-task learning and autoencoder both have a positive effect on prediction performance. In addition, the prediction results of MTLSynergy in many cases are also consistent with previous studies. CONCLUSION Our study suggests that multi-task learning is significantly beneficial for both drug synergy prediction and monotherapy sensitivity prediction when combining these two tasks into one model. The ability of MTLSynergy to discover new anticancer synergistic drug combinations noteworthily outperforms other state-of-the-art methods. MTLSynergy promises to be a powerful tool to pre-screen anticancer synergistic drug combinations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Danyi Chen
- School of Software Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 201804, China
| | - Xiaowen Wang
- School of Software Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 201804, China
| | - Hongming Zhu
- School of Software Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 201804, China
| | - Yizhi Jiang
- School of Software Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 201804, China
| | - Yulong Li
- School of Software Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 201804, China
| | - Qi Liu
- Translational Medical Center for Stem Cell Therapy and Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Shanghai East Hospital, Bioinformatics Department, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China.
| | - Qin Liu
- School of Software Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 201804, China.
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4
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Nair NU, Greninger P, Zhang X, Friedman AA, Amzallag A, Cortez E, Sahu AD, Lee JS, Dastur A, Egan RK, Murchie E, Ceribelli M, Crowther GS, Beck E, McClanaghan J, Klump-Thomas C, Boisvert JL, Damon LJ, Wilson KM, Ho J, Tam A, McKnight C, Michael S, Itkin Z, Garnett MJ, Engelman JA, Haber DA, Thomas CJ, Ruppin E, Benes CH. A landscape of response to drug combinations in non-small cell lung cancer. Nat Commun 2023; 14:3830. [PMID: 37380628 PMCID: PMC10307832 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39528-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2023] [Accepted: 06/14/2023] [Indexed: 06/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Combination of anti-cancer drugs is broadly seen as way to overcome the often-limited efficacy of single agents. The design and testing of combinations are however very challenging. Here we present a uniquely large dataset screening over 5000 targeted agent combinations across 81 non-small cell lung cancer cell lines. Our analysis reveals a profound heterogeneity of response across the tumor models. Notably, combinations very rarely result in a strong gain in efficacy over the range of response observable with single agents. Importantly, gain of activity over single agents is more often seen when co-targeting functionally proximal genes, offering a strategy for designing more efficient combinations. Because combinatorial effect is strongly context specific, tumor specificity should be achievable. The resource provided, together with an additional validation screen sheds light on major challenges and opportunities in building efficacious combinations against cancer and provides an opportunity for training computational models for synergy prediction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nishanth Ulhas Nair
- Cancer Data Science Laboratory, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | | | - Xiaohu Zhang
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Adam A Friedman
- Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Arnaud Amzallag
- Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Eliane Cortez
- Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Avinash Das Sahu
- University of New Mexico, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Albuquerque, NM, USA
| | - Joo Sang Lee
- Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Suwon, 16419, Republic of Korea
| | - Anahita Dastur
- Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Regina K Egan
- Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Ellen Murchie
- Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | | | - Erin Beck
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | | | | | | | - Leah J Damon
- Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | - Jeffrey Ho
- Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Angela Tam
- Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | - Sam Michael
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Zina Itkin
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Mathew J Garnett
- Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK
| | | | - Daniel A Haber
- Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Craig J Thomas
- Division of Preclinical Innovation, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institute of Health, Rockville, MD, 20850, USA
- Lymphoid Malignancies Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA
| | - Eytan Ruppin
- Cancer Data Science Laboratory, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
| | - Cyril H Benes
- Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
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5
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Gillani R, Seong BKA, Crowdis J, Conway JR, Dharia NV, Alimohamed S, Haas BJ, Han K, Park J, Dietlein F, He MX, Imamovic A, Ma C, Bassik MC, Boehm JS, Vazquez F, Gusev A, Liu D, Janeway KA, McFarland JM, Stegmaier K, Van Allen EM. Gene Fusions Create Partner and Collateral Dependencies Essential to Cancer Cell Survival. Cancer Res 2021; 81:3971-3984. [PMID: 34099491 PMCID: PMC8338889 DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.can-21-0791] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2021] [Revised: 03/26/2021] [Accepted: 06/04/2021] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Gene fusions frequently result from rearrangements in cancer genomes. In many instances, gene fusions play an important role in oncogenesis; in other instances, they are thought to be passenger events. Although regulatory element rearrangements and copy number alterations resulting from these structural variants are known to lead to transcriptional dysregulation across cancers, the extent to which these events result in functional dependencies with an impact on cancer cell survival is variable. Here we used CRISPR-Cas9 dependency screens to evaluate the fitness impact of 3,277 fusions across 645 cell lines from the Cancer Dependency Map. We found that 35% of cell lines harbored either a fusion partner dependency or a collateral dependency on a gene within the same topologically associating domain as a fusion partner. Fusion-associated dependencies revealed numerous novel oncogenic drivers and clinically translatable alterations. Broadly, fusions can result in partner and collateral dependencies that have biological and clinical relevance across cancer types. SIGNIFICANCE: This study provides insights into how fusions contribute to fitness in different cancer contexts beyond partner-gene activation events, identifying partner and collateral dependencies that may have direct implications for clinical care.
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Affiliation(s)
- Riaz Gillani
- Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts.,Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts.,Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.,Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Bo Kyung A. Seong
- Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts.,Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Jett Crowdis
- Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts.,Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Jake R. Conway
- Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts.,Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Neekesh V. Dharia
- Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts.,Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts.,Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.,Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Saif Alimohamed
- Wake Forest School of Medicine, Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
| | - Brian J. Haas
- Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Kyuho Han
- Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California
| | - Jihye Park
- Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts.,Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Felix Dietlein
- Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts.,Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Meng Xiao He
- Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts.,Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Alma Imamovic
- Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts.,Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Clement Ma
- Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Michael C. Bassik
- Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California.,Program in Cancer Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California.,Program in Chemistry, Engineering and Medicine for Human Health (ChEM-H), Stanford University, Stanford, California
| | - Jesse S. Boehm
- Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | | | - Alexander Gusev
- Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts.,Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - David Liu
- Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts.,Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Katherine A. Janeway
- Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts.,Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.,Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
| | | | - Kimberly Stegmaier
- Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts.,Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts.,Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.,Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Eliezer M. Van Allen
- Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts.,Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts.,Center for Cancer Genomics, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts.,Corresponding Author: Eliezer M. Van Allen, Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215. Phone: 617-632-6656; E-mail:
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6
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Seo H, Tkachuk D, Ho C, Mammoliti A, Rezaie A, Madani Tonekaboni S, Haibe-Kains B. SYNERGxDB: an integrative pharmacogenomic portal to identify synergistic drug combinations for precision oncology. Nucleic Acids Res 2020; 48:W494-W501. [PMID: 32442307 PMCID: PMC7319572 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkaa421] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/29/2020] [Revised: 05/03/2020] [Accepted: 05/06/2020] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Drug-combination data portals have recently been introduced to mine huge amounts of pharmacological data with the aim of improving current chemotherapy strategies. However, these portals have only been investigated for isolated datasets, and molecular profiles of cancer cell lines are lacking. Here we developed a cloud-based pharmacogenomics portal called SYNERGxDB (http://SYNERGxDB.ca/) that integrates multiple high-throughput drug-combination studies with molecular and pharmacological profiles of a large panel of cancer cell lines. This portal enables the identification of synergistic drug combinations through harmonization and unified computational analysis. We integrated nine of the largest drug combination datasets from both academic groups and pharmaceutical companies, resulting in 22 507 unique drug combinations (1977 unique compounds) screened against 151 cancer cell lines. This data compendium includes metabolomics, gene expression, copy number and mutation profiles of the cancer cell lines. In addition, SYNERGxDB provides analytical tools to discover effective therapeutic combinations and predictive biomarkers across cancer, including specific types. Combining molecular and pharmacological profiles, we systematically explored the large space of univariate predictors of drug synergism. SYNERGxDB constitutes a comprehensive resource that opens new avenues of research for exploring the mechanism of action for drug synergy with the potential of identifying new treatment strategies for cancer patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heewon Seo
- Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario M5G 0A3, Canada
- Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada
| | - Denis Tkachuk
- Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario M5G 0A3, Canada
| | - Chantal Ho
- Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario M5G 0A3, Canada
| | - Anthony Mammoliti
- Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario M5G 0A3, Canada
- Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada
| | - Aria Rezaie
- Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario M5G 0A3, Canada
| | - Seyed Ali Madani Tonekaboni
- Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario M5G 0A3, Canada
- Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada
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7
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Emon MA, Domingo-Fernández D, Hoyt CT, Hofmann-Apitius M. PS4DR: a multimodal workflow for identification and prioritization of drugs based on pathway signatures. BMC Bioinformatics 2020; 21:231. [PMID: 32503412 PMCID: PMC7275349 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-020-03568-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2019] [Accepted: 05/28/2020] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Background During the last decade, there has been a surge towards computational drug repositioning owing to constantly increasing -omics data in the biomedical research field. While numerous existing methods focus on the integration of heterogeneous data to propose candidate drugs, it is still challenging to substantiate their results with mechanistic insights of these candidate drugs. Therefore, there is a need for more innovative and efficient methods which can enable better integration of data and knowledge for drug repositioning. Results Here, we present a customizable workflow (PS4DR) which not only integrates high-throughput data such as genome-wide association study (GWAS) data and gene expression signatures from disease and drug perturbations but also takes pathway knowledge into consideration to predict drug candidates for repositioning. We have collected and integrated publicly available GWAS data and gene expression signatures for several diseases and hundreds of FDA-approved drugs or those under clinical trial in this study. Additionally, different pathway databases were used for mechanistic knowledge integration in the workflow. Using this systematic consolidation of data and knowledge, the workflow computes pathway signatures that assist in the prediction of new indications for approved and investigational drugs. Conclusion We showcase PS4DR with applications demonstrating how this tool can be used for repositioning and identifying new drugs as well as proposing drugs that can simulate disease dysregulations. We were able to validate our workflow by demonstrating its capability to predict FDA-approved drugs for their known indications for several diseases. Further, PS4DR returned many potential drug candidates for repositioning that were backed up by epidemiological evidence extracted from scientific literature. Source code is freely available at https://github.com/ps4dr/ps4dr.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohammad Asif Emon
- Department of Bioinformatics, Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing (Fraunhofer SCAI), 53757, Sankt Augustin, Germany. .,Bonn-Aachen International Center for IT, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, 53117, Bonn, Germany.
| | - Daniel Domingo-Fernández
- Department of Bioinformatics, Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing (Fraunhofer SCAI), 53757, Sankt Augustin, Germany. .,Bonn-Aachen International Center for IT, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, 53117, Bonn, Germany.
| | - Charles Tapley Hoyt
- Department of Bioinformatics, Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing (Fraunhofer SCAI), 53757, Sankt Augustin, Germany.,Bonn-Aachen International Center for IT, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, 53117, Bonn, Germany
| | - Martin Hofmann-Apitius
- Department of Bioinformatics, Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing (Fraunhofer SCAI), 53757, Sankt Augustin, Germany.,Bonn-Aachen International Center for IT, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, 53117, Bonn, Germany
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8
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Flobak Å, Niederdorfer B, Nakstad VT, Thommesen L, Klinkenberg G, Lægreid A. A high-throughput drug combination screen of targeted small molecule inhibitors in cancer cell lines. Sci Data 2019; 6:237. [PMID: 31664030 PMCID: PMC6820772 DOI: 10.1038/s41597-019-0255-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2019] [Accepted: 10/07/2019] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
While there is a high interest in drug combinations in cancer therapy, openly accessible datasets for drug combination responses are sparse. Here we present a dataset comprising 171 pairwise combinations of 19 individual drugs targeting signal transduction mechanisms across eight cancer cell lines, where the effect of each drug and drug combination is reported as cell viability assessed by metabolic activity. Drugs are chosen by their capacity to specifically interfere with well-known signal transduction mechanisms. Signalling processes targeted by the drugs include PI3K/AKT, NFkB, JAK/STAT, CTNNB1/TCF, and MAPK pathways. Drug combinations are classified as synergistic based on the Bliss independence synergy metrics. The data identifies combinations that synergistically reduce cancer cell viability and that can be of interest for further pre-clinical investigations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Åsmund Flobak
- Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
- The Cancer Clinic, St. Olav's Hospital, Trondheim, Norway.
| | - Barbara Niederdorfer
- Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Vu To Nakstad
- SINTEF Materials and Chemistry, Department of Biotechnology, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Liv Thommesen
- Department of Biomedical Laboratory Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Geir Klinkenberg
- SINTEF Materials and Chemistry, Department of Biotechnology, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Astrid Lægreid
- Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
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9
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Combination of Anti-Cancer Drugs with Molecular Chaperone Inhibitors. Int J Mol Sci 2019; 20:ijms20215284. [PMID: 31652993 PMCID: PMC6862641 DOI: 10.3390/ijms20215284] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2019] [Revised: 10/21/2019] [Accepted: 10/22/2019] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Most molecular chaperones belonging to heat shock protein (HSP) families are known to protect cancer cells from pathologic, environmental and pharmacological stress factors and thereby can hamper anti-cancer therapies. In this review, we present data on inhibitors of the heat shock response (particularly mediated by the chaperones HSP90, HSP70, and HSP27) either as a single treatment or in combination with currently available anti-cancer therapeutic approaches. An overview of the current literature reveals that the co-administration of chaperone inhibitors and targeting drugs results in proteotoxic stress and violates the tumor cell physiology. An optimal drug combination should simultaneously target cytoprotective mechanisms and trigger the imbalance of the tumor cell physiology.
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10
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Erber J, Steiner JD, Isensee J, Lobbes LA, Toschka A, Beleggia F, Schmitt A, Kaiser RWJ, Siedek F, Persigehl T, Hucho T, Reinhardt HC. Dual Inhibition of GLUT1 and the ATR/CHK1 Kinase Axis Displays Synergistic Cytotoxicity in KRAS-Mutant Cancer Cells. Cancer Res 2019; 79:4855-4868. [PMID: 31405847 DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.can-18-3959] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2018] [Revised: 06/18/2019] [Accepted: 08/06/2019] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The advent of molecularly targeted therapeutic agents has opened a new era in cancer therapy. However, many tumors rely on nondruggable cancer-driving lesions. In addition, long-lasting clinical benefits from single-agent therapies rarely occur, as most of the tumors acquire resistance over time. The identification of targeted combination regimens interfering with signaling through oncogenically rewired pathways provides a promising approach to enhance efficacy of single-agent-targeted treatments. Moreover, combination drug therapies might overcome the emergence of drug resistance. Here, we performed a focused flow cytometry-based drug synergy screen and identified a novel synergistic interaction between GLUT1-mediated glucose transport and the cell-cycle checkpoint kinases ATR and CHK1. Combined inhibition of CHK1/GLUT1 or ATR/GLUT1 robustly induced apoptosis, particularly in RAS-mutant cancer cells. Mechanistically, combined inhibition of ATR/CHK1 and GLUT1 arrested sensitive cells in S-phase and led to the accumulation of genotoxic damage, particularly in S-phase. In vivo, simultaneous inhibition of ATR and GLUT1 significantly reduced tumor volume gain in an autochthonous mouse model of KrasG12D -driven soft tissue sarcoma. Taken together, these findings pave the way for combined inhibition of GLUT1 and ATR/CHK1 as a therapeutic approach for KRAS-driven cancers. SIGNIFICANCE: Dual targeting of the DNA damage response and glucose transport synergistically induces apoptosis in KRAS-mutant cancer, suggesting this combination treatment for clinical validation in KRAS-stratified tumor patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johanna Erber
- Department I of Internal Medicine, Center for Integrated Oncology Aachen Bonn Cologne Dusseldorf, Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne, CECAD, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
| | - Joachim D Steiner
- Department I of Internal Medicine, Center for Integrated Oncology Aachen Bonn Cologne Dusseldorf, Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne, CECAD, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Jörg Isensee
- Translational Pain Research, Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Leonard A Lobbes
- Department I of Internal Medicine, Center for Integrated Oncology Aachen Bonn Cologne Dusseldorf, Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne, CECAD, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - André Toschka
- Department I of Internal Medicine, Center for Integrated Oncology Aachen Bonn Cologne Dusseldorf, Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne, CECAD, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Filippo Beleggia
- Department I of Internal Medicine, Center for Integrated Oncology Aachen Bonn Cologne Dusseldorf, Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne, CECAD, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Anna Schmitt
- Department I of Internal Medicine, Center for Integrated Oncology Aachen Bonn Cologne Dusseldorf, Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne, CECAD, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Rainer W J Kaiser
- Department II of Internal Medicine and Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne, CECAD, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Florian Siedek
- Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Thorsten Persigehl
- Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Tim Hucho
- Translational Pain Research, Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Hans C Reinhardt
- Department I of Internal Medicine, Center for Integrated Oncology Aachen Bonn Cologne Dusseldorf, Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne, CECAD, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
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11
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Liu P, Li H, Li S, Leung KS. Improving prediction of phenotypic drug response on cancer cell lines using deep convolutional network. BMC Bioinformatics 2019; 20:408. [PMID: 31357929 PMCID: PMC6664725 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-019-2910-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2018] [Accepted: 05/21/2019] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Understanding the phenotypic drug response on cancer cell lines plays a vital role in anti-cancer drug discovery and re-purposing. The Genomics of Drug Sensitivity in Cancer (GDSC) database provides open data for researchers in phenotypic screening to build and test their models. Previously, most research in these areas starts from the molecular fingerprints or physiochemical features of drugs, instead of their structures. Results In this paper, a model called twin Convolutional Neural Network for drugs in SMILES format (tCNNS) is introduced for phenotypic screening. tCNNS uses a convolutional network to extract features for drugs from their simplified molecular input line entry specification (SMILES) format and uses another convolutional network to extract features for cancer cell lines from the genetic feature vectors respectively. After that, a fully connected network is used to predict the interaction between the drugs and the cancer cell lines. When the training set and the testing set are divided based on the interaction pairs between drugs and cell lines, tCNNS achieves 0.826, 0.831 for the mean and top quartile of the coefficient of determinant (R2) respectively and 0.909, 0.912 for the mean and top quartile of the Pearson correlation (Rp) respectively, which are significantly better than those of the previous works (Ammad-Ud-Din et al., J Chem Inf Model 54:2347–9, 2014), (Haider et al., PLoS ONE 10:0144490, 2015), (Menden et al., PLoS ONE 8:61318, 2013). However, when the training set and the testing set are divided exclusively based on drugs or cell lines, the performance of tCNNS decreases significantly and Rp and R2 drop to barely above 0. Conclusions Our approach is able to predict the drug effects on cancer cell lines with high accuracy, and its performance remains stable with less but high-quality data, and with fewer features for the cancer cell lines. tCNNS can also solve the problem of outliers in other feature space. Besides achieving high scores in these statistical metrics, tCNNS also provides some insights into the phenotypic screening. However, the performance of tCNNS drops in the blind test. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12859-019-2910-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pengfei Liu
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Sha Tin, N.T., Hong Kong, China.
| | - Hongjian Li
- SDIVF R&D Centre, Hong Kong Science Park, Sha Tin, N.T., Hong Kong, China.,CUHK-SDU Reproductive Genetics Joint Laboratory, School of Biomedical Sciences, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Sha Tin, N.T., Hong Kong, China
| | - Shuai Li
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Sha Tin, N.T., Hong Kong, China
| | - Kwong-Sak Leung
- Department of Computer Science and Engineering, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Sha Tin, N.T., Hong Kong, China
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12
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Optimal control nodes in disease-perturbed networks as targets for combination therapy. Nat Commun 2019; 10:2180. [PMID: 31097707 PMCID: PMC6522545 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-10215-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2018] [Accepted: 04/29/2019] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Most combination therapies are developed based on targets of existing drugs, which only represent a small portion of the human proteome. We introduce a network controllability-based method, OptiCon, for de novo identification of synergistic regulators as candidates for combination therapy. These regulators jointly exert maximal control over deregulated genes but minimal control over unperturbed genes in a disease. Using data from three cancer types, we show that 68% of predicted regulators are either known drug targets or have a critical role in cancer development. Predicted regulators are depleted for known proteins associated with side effects. Predicted synergy is supported by disease-specific and clinically relevant synthetic lethal interactions and experimental validation. A significant portion of genes regulated by synergistic regulators participate in dense interactions between co-regulated subnetworks and contribute to therapy resistance. OptiCon represents a general framework for systemic and de novo identification of synergistic regulators underlying a cellular state transition. Synergistic interactions may arise between regulators in complex molecular networks. Here, the authors develop OptiCon, a computational method for de novo identification of synergistic key regulators and investigate their potential roles as candidate targets for combination therapy.
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13
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Savoia P, Fava P, Casoni F, Cremona O. Targeting the ERK Signaling Pathway in Melanoma. Int J Mol Sci 2019; 20:ijms20061483. [PMID: 30934534 PMCID: PMC6472057 DOI: 10.3390/ijms20061483] [Citation(s) in RCA: 100] [Impact Index Per Article: 20.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2019] [Revised: 03/17/2019] [Accepted: 03/19/2019] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
The discovery of the role of the RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK pathway in melanomagenesis and its progression have opened a new era in the treatment of this tumor. Vemurafenib was the first specific kinase inhibitor approved for therapy of advanced melanomas harboring BRAF-activating mutations, followed by dabrafenib and encorafenib. However, despite the excellent results of first-generation kinase inhibitors in terms of response rate, the average duration of the response was short, due to the onset of genetic and epigenetic resistance mechanisms. The combination therapy with MEK inhibitors is an excellent strategy to circumvent drug resistance, with the additional advantage of reducing side effects due to the paradoxical reactivation of the MAPK pathway. The recent development of RAS and extracellular signal-related kinases (ERK) inhibitors promises to add new players for the ultimate suppression of this signaling pathway and the control of pathway-related drug resistance. In this review, we analyze the pharmacological, preclinical, and clinical trial data of the various MAPK pathway inhibitors, with a keen interest for their clinical applicability in the management of advanced melanoma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paola Savoia
- Department of Health Science, University of Eastern Piedmont, via Solaroli 17, 28100 Novara, Italy.
| | - Paolo Fava
- Section of Dermatology, Department of Medical Science, University of Turin, 10124 Turin, Italy.
| | - Filippo Casoni
- San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Division of Neuroscience, via Olgettina 58, 20132 Milano, Italy.
- Università Vita Salute San Raffaele, via Olgettina 58, 20132 Milano, Italy.
| | - Ottavio Cremona
- San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Division of Neuroscience, via Olgettina 58, 20132 Milano, Italy.
- Università Vita Salute San Raffaele, via Olgettina 58, 20132 Milano, Italy.
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14
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Feng X, Arang N, Rigiracciolo DC, Lee JS, Yeerna H, Wang Z, Lubrano S, Kishore A, Pachter JA, König GM, Maggiolini M, Kostenis E, Schlaepfer DD, Tamayo P, Chen Q, Ruppin E, Gutkind JS. A Platform of Synthetic Lethal Gene Interaction Networks Reveals that the GNAQ Uveal Melanoma Oncogene Controls the Hippo Pathway through FAK. Cancer Cell 2019; 35:457-472.e5. [PMID: 30773340 PMCID: PMC6737937 DOI: 10.1016/j.ccell.2019.01.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 145] [Impact Index Per Article: 29.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2018] [Revised: 12/03/2018] [Accepted: 01/15/2019] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
Activating mutations in GNAQ/GNA11, encoding Gαq G proteins, are initiating oncogenic events in uveal melanoma (UM). However, there are no effective therapies for UM. Using an integrated bioinformatics pipeline, we found that PTK2, encoding focal adhesion kinase (FAK), represents a candidate synthetic lethal gene with GNAQ activation. We show that Gαq activates FAK through TRIO-RhoA non-canonical Gαq-signaling, and genetic ablation or pharmacological inhibition of FAK inhibits UM growth. Analysis of the FAK-regulated transcriptome demonstrated that GNAQ stimulates YAP through FAK. Dissection of the underlying mechanism revealed that FAK regulates YAP by tyrosine phosphorylation of MOB1, inhibiting core Hippo signaling. Our findings establish FAK as a potential therapeutic target for UM and other Gαq-driven pathophysiologies that involve unrestrained YAP function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaodong Feng
- Moores Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA; State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China
| | - Nadia Arang
- Moores Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA; Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Damiano Cosimo Rigiracciolo
- Moores Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA; Department of Pharmacy and Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, Rende 87036, Italy
| | - Joo Sang Lee
- Cancer Data Science Laboratory, National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA; Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology & Department of Computer Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
| | - Huwate Yeerna
- Moores Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Zhiyong Wang
- Moores Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA; Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Simone Lubrano
- Moores Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Ayush Kishore
- Moores Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | | | - Gabriele M König
- Molecular, Cellular and Pharmacobiology Section, Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology, University of Bonn, Bonn 53115, Germany
| | - Marcello Maggiolini
- Department of Pharmacy and Health and Nutritional Sciences, University of Calabria, Rende 87036, Italy
| | - Evi Kostenis
- Molecular, Cellular and Pharmacobiology Section, Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology, University of Bonn, Bonn 53115, Germany
| | - David D Schlaepfer
- Moores Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Pablo Tamayo
- Moores Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA; Division of Medical Genetics, UC San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
| | - Qianming Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
| | - Eytan Ruppin
- Cancer Data Science Laboratory, National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA; Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology & Department of Computer Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
| | - J Silvio Gutkind
- Moores Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
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15
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Sahu AD, S Lee J, Wang Z, Zhang G, Iglesias-Bartolome R, Tian T, Wei Z, Miao B, Nair NU, Ponomarova O, Friedman AA, Amzallag A, Moll T, Kasumova G, Greninger P, Egan RK, Damon LJ, Frederick DT, Jerby-Arnon L, Wagner A, Cheng K, Park SG, Robinson W, Gardner K, Boland G, Hannenhalli S, Herlyn M, Benes C, Flaherty K, Luo J, Gutkind JS, Ruppin E. Genome-wide prediction of synthetic rescue mediators of resistance to targeted and immunotherapy. Mol Syst Biol 2019; 15:e8323. [PMID: 30858180 PMCID: PMC6413886 DOI: 10.15252/msb.20188323] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2018] [Revised: 12/31/2018] [Accepted: 01/21/2019] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Most patients with advanced cancer eventually acquire resistance to targeted therapies, spurring extensive efforts to identify molecular events mediating therapy resistance. Many of these events involve synthetic rescue (SR) interactions, where the reduction in cancer cell viability caused by targeted gene inactivation is rescued by an adaptive alteration of another gene (the rescuer). Here, we perform a genome-wide in silico prediction of SR rescuer genes by analyzing tumor transcriptomics and survival data of 10,000 TCGA cancer patients. Predicted SR interactions are validated in new experimental screens. We show that SR interactions can successfully predict cancer patients' response and emerging resistance. Inhibiting predicted rescuer genes sensitizes resistant cancer cells to therapies synergistically, providing initial leads for developing combinatorial approaches to overcome resistance proactively. Finally, we show that the SR analysis of melanoma patients successfully identifies known mediators of resistance to immunotherapy and predicts novel rescuers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Avinash Das Sahu
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Medicine and Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, MA, USA
- University of Maryland Institute of Advanced Computer Science (UMIACS), University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
| | - Joo S Lee
- University of Maryland Institute of Advanced Computer Science (UMIACS), University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
- Cancer Data Science Lab, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Zhiyong Wang
- Department of Pharmacology & Moores Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Gao Zhang
- Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis Program and Melanoma Research Center, The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Neurosurgery and The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | | | - Tian Tian
- New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, USA
| | - Zhi Wei
- New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, USA
| | - Benchun Miao
- Department of Medicine and Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Nishanth Ulhas Nair
- University of Maryland Institute of Advanced Computer Science (UMIACS), University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
- Cancer Data Science Lab, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Olga Ponomarova
- University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA
| | - Adam A Friedman
- Department of Medicine and Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Arnaud Amzallag
- Department of Medicine and Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Tabea Moll
- Department of Medicine and Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Gyulnara Kasumova
- Department of Medicine and Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Patricia Greninger
- Department of Medicine and Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Regina K Egan
- Department of Medicine and Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Leah J Damon
- Department of Medicine and Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Dennie T Frederick
- Department of Medicine and Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Livnat Jerby-Arnon
- Schools of Computer Science & Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel
| | - Allon Wagner
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, the Center for Computational Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Kuoyuan Cheng
- University of Maryland Institute of Advanced Computer Science (UMIACS), University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
| | - Seung Gu Park
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Welles Robinson
- University of Maryland Institute of Advanced Computer Science (UMIACS), University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
| | - Kevin Gardner
- Cancer Data Science Lab, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Genevieve Boland
- Department of Medicine and Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Sridhar Hannenhalli
- University of Maryland Institute of Advanced Computer Science (UMIACS), University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
| | - Meenhard Herlyn
- Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis Program and Melanoma Research Center, The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Cyril Benes
- Department of Medicine and Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Keith Flaherty
- Department of Medicine and Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Ji Luo
- National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - J Silvio Gutkind
- Department of Pharmacology & Moores Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Eytan Ruppin
- University of Maryland Institute of Advanced Computer Science (UMIACS), University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
- Cancer Data Science Lab, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
- Schools of Computer Science & Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel
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16
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Regan-Fendt KE, Xu J, DiVincenzo M, Duggan MC, Shakya R, Na R, Carson WE, Payne PRO, Li F. Synergy from gene expression and network mining (SynGeNet) method predicts synergistic drug combinations for diverse melanoma genomic subtypes. NPJ Syst Biol Appl 2019; 5:6. [PMID: 30820351 PMCID: PMC6391384 DOI: 10.1038/s41540-019-0085-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2018] [Accepted: 01/23/2019] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Systems biology perspectives are crucial for understanding the pathophysiology of complex diseases, and therefore hold great promise for the discovery of novel treatment strategies. Drug combinations have been shown to improve durability and reduce resistance to available first-line therapies in a variety of cancers; however, traditional drug discovery approaches are prohibitively cost and labor-intensive to evaluate large-scale matrices of potential drug combinations. Computational methods are needed to efficiently model complex interactions of drug target pathways and identify mechanisms underlying drug combination synergy. In this study, we employ a computational approach, SynGeNet (Synergy from Gene expression and Network mining), which integrates transcriptomics-based connectivity mapping and network centrality analysis to analyze disease networks and predict drug combinations. As an exemplar of a disease in which combination therapies demonstrate efficacy in genomic-specific contexts, we investigate malignant melanoma. We employed SynGeNet to generate drug combination predictions for each of the four major genomic subtypes of melanoma (BRAF, NRAS, NF1, and triple wild type) using publicly available gene expression and mutation data. We validated synergistic drug combinations predicted by our method across all genomic subtypes using results from a high-throughput drug screening study across. Finally, we prospectively validated the drug combination for BRAF-mutant melanoma that was top ranked by our approach, vemurafenib (BRAF inhibitor) + tretinoin (retinoic acid receptor agonist), using both in vitro and in vivo models of BRAF-mutant melanoma and RNA-sequencing analysis of drug-treated melanoma cells to validate the predicted mechanisms. Our approach is applicable to a wide range of disease domains, and, importantly, can model disease-relevant protein subnetworks in precision medicine contexts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kelly E Regan-Fendt
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Jielin Xu
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Mallory DiVincenzo
- Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Megan C Duggan
- Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Reena Shakya
- Target Validation Shared Resource, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Ryejung Na
- Target Validation Shared Resource, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - William E Carson
- Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
| | - Philip R O Payne
- Institute for Informatics, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
| | - Fuhai Li
- Institute for Informatics, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.
- Department of Pediatrics, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.
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17
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Amzallag A, Ramaswamy S, Benes CH. Statistical assessment and visualization of synergies for large-scale sparse drug combination datasets. BMC Bioinformatics 2019; 20:83. [PMID: 30777010 PMCID: PMC6378741 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-019-2642-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2018] [Accepted: 01/21/2019] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Drug combinations have the potential to improve efficacy while limiting toxicity. To robustly identify synergistic combinations, high-throughput screens using full dose-response surface are desirable but require an impractical number of data points. Screening of a sparse number of doses per drug allows to screen large numbers of drug pairs, but complicates statistical assessment of synergy. Furthermore, since the number of pairwise combinations grows with the square of the number of drugs, exploration of large screens necessitates advanced visualization tools. RESULTS We describe a statistical and visualization framework for the analysis of large-scale drug combination screens. We developed an approach suitable for datasets with large number of drugs pairs even if small number of data points are available per drug pair. We demonstrate our approach using a systematic screen of all possible pairs among 108 cancer drugs applied to melanoma cell lines. In this dataset only two dose-response data points per drug pair and two data points per single drug test were available. We used a Bliss-based linear model, effectively borrowing data from the drug pairs to obtain robust estimations of the singlet viabilities, consequently yielding better estimates of drug synergy. Our method improves data consistency across dosing thus likely reducing the number of false positives. The approach allows to compute p values accounting for standard errors of the modeled singlets and combination viabilities. We further develop a synergy specificity score that distinguishes specific synergies from those arising with promiscuous drugs. Finally, we developed a summarized interactive visualization in a web application, providing efficient access to any of the 439,000 data points in the combination matrix ( http://www.cmtlab.org:3000/combo_app.html ). The code of the analysis and the web application is available at https://github.com/arnaudmgh/synergy-screen . CONCLUSIONS We show that statistical modeling of single drug response from drug combination data can help determine significance of synergy and antagonism in drug combination screens with few data point per drug pair. We provide a web application for the rapid exploration of large combinatorial drug screen. All codes are available to the community, as a resource for further analysis of published data and for analysis of other drug screens.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arnaud Amzallag
- 0000 0004 0386 9924grid.32224.35The Center of Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, 149 13th Street, Charlestown, MA 02129 USA ,000000041936754Xgrid.38142.3cHarvard Medical School, Boston, MA USA ,grid.66859.34Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA USA ,Current Address: PatientsLikeMe, 160 Second Street, Cambridge, MA 02142 USA
| | - Sridhar Ramaswamy
- 0000 0004 0386 9924grid.32224.35The Center of Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, 149 13th Street, Charlestown, MA 02129 USA ,000000041936754Xgrid.38142.3cHarvard Medical School, Boston, MA USA ,grid.66859.34Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA USA ,000000041936754Xgrid.38142.3cHarvard Stem Cell Institute, Cambridge, MA USA ,Harvard-Ludwig Center for Cancer Research, Boston, MA USA
| | - Cyril H. Benes
- 0000 0004 0386 9924grid.32224.35The Center of Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, 149 13th Street, Charlestown, MA 02129 USA ,000000041936754Xgrid.38142.3cHarvard Medical School, Boston, MA USA
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18
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Dratkiewicz E, Pietraszek-Gremplewicz K, Simiczyjew A, Mazur AJ, Nowak D. Gefitinib or lapatinib with foretinib synergistically induce a cytotoxic effect in melanoma cell lines. Oncotarget 2018; 9:18254-18268. [PMID: 29719603 PMCID: PMC5915070 DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.24810] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2017] [Accepted: 02/25/2018] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Melanoma is an aggressive cancer type with a high mortality rate and an elevated resistance to conventional treatment. Recently, promising new tools for anti-melanoma targeted therapy have emerged including inhibitors directed against frequently overexpressed receptors of growth factors implicated in the progression of this cancer. The ineffectiveness of single-targeted therapy prompted us to study the efficacy of treatment with a combination of foretinib, a MET (hepatocyte growth factor receptor) inhibitor, and gefitinib or lapatinib, EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) inhibitors. We observed a synergistic cytotoxic effect for the combination of foretinib and lapatinib on the viability and proliferation of the examined melanoma cell lines. This combination of inhibitors significantly decreased Akt and Erk phosphorylation, while the drugs used independently were insufficient. Additionally, after treatment with pairs of inhibitors, cells became larger, with more pronounced stress fibers and abnormally shaped nuclei. We also noticed the appearance of polyploid cells and massive enrichment in the G2/M phase. Therefore, combination treatment was much more effective against melanoma cells than a single-targeted approach. Based on our results, we conclude that both EGFR and MET receptors might be effective targets in melanoma therapy. However, variation in their levels in patients should be taken into consideration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ewelina Dratkiewicz
- Department of Cell Pathology, Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Wroclaw, Wroclaw, Poland
| | | | - Aleksandra Simiczyjew
- Department of Cell Pathology, Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Wroclaw, Wroclaw, Poland
| | - Antonina Joanna Mazur
- Department of Cell Pathology, Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Wroclaw, Wroclaw, Poland
| | - Dorota Nowak
- Department of Cell Pathology, Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Wroclaw, Wroclaw, Poland
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19
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Tyner JW. Integrating functional genomics to accelerate mechanistic personalized medicine. Cold Spring Harb Mol Case Stud 2017; 3:a001370. [PMID: 28299357 PMCID: PMC5334473 DOI: 10.1101/mcs.a001370] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The advent of deep sequencing technologies has resulted in the deciphering of tremendous amounts of genetic information. These data have led to major discoveries, and many anecdotes now exist of individual patients whose clinical outcomes have benefited from novel, genetically guided therapeutic strategies. However, the majority of genetic events in cancer are currently undrugged, leading to a biological gap between understanding of tumor genetic etiology and translation to improved clinical approaches. Functional screening has made tremendous strides in recent years with the development of new experimental approaches to studying ex vivo and in vivo drug sensitivity. Numerous discoveries and anecdotes also exist for translation of functional screening into novel clinical strategies; however, the current clinical application of functional screening remains largely confined to small clinical trials at specific academic centers. The intersection between genomic and functional approaches represents an ideal modality to accelerate our understanding of drug sensitivities as they relate to specific genetic events and further understand the full mechanisms underlying drug sensitivity patterns.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeffrey W Tyner
- Department of Cell, Developmental and Cancer Biology, Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon 97239, USA
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20
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Han L, Wang P, Sun Y, Liu S, Dai J. Anti-Melanoma Activities of Haspin Inhibitor CHR-6494 Deployed as a Single Agent or in a Synergistic Combination with MEK Inhibitor. J Cancer 2017; 8:2933-2943. [PMID: 28928884 PMCID: PMC5604444 DOI: 10.7150/jca.20319] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2017] [Accepted: 05/28/2017] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: Melanoma is a heterogeneous malignancy that presents an immense challenge in therapeutic development. Recent approaches targeting the oncogenic MAP kinase pathways have shown tremendous improvement in the overall survival of patients with advanced melanoma. However, there is still an urgent need for identification of new strategies to overcome drug resistances and to improve therapeutic efficacy. Haspin (Haploid Germ Cell-Specific Nuclear Protein Kinase) belongs to a selected group of mitotic kinases and is required for normal mitosis progression. In contrast to inhibitors of other mitotic kinases, anti-tumor potential of haspin inhibitors has not been well explored. Herein, we aim to examine effects of CHR-6494, a small molecule inhibitor of haspin, in melanoma cells. Methods: Anti-tumor activities of the haspin inhibitor CHR-6494 were tested in a number of melanoma cell lines either as a single agent or in combination with the MEK inhibitor Trametinib (GSK1120212). Experiments are based on: 1) Cell viability determined by the crystal violet staining assay; 2) apoptotic responses measured by the caspase 3/7 activity assay and western blot analysis for the level of cleaved PARP (Poly ADP-Ribose Polymerase); 3) cell cycle analysis conducted using flow cytometry; and 4) cell migratory ability assessed by the scratch assay and the transwell migration assay. Results: We have found that CHR-6494 alone elicits a dose dependent inhibitory effect on the viability of several melanoma cell lines. This growth inhibition is accompanied by an increase in apoptotic responses. More importantly, CHR-6494 appears to synergize with the MEK inhibitor Trametinib in suppressing cell growth and enhancing apoptosis in both wild type and BRAFV600E mutant melanoma cell lines. Administering of these two small molecules as a combination is also capable of suppressing cell migration to a greater extent than the individual agent. Conclusion: These results suggest that haspin can be considered as a viable anti-melanoma target, and that concomitant inhibition of haspin and MEK activities with small molecules could represent a novel therapeutic strategy with improved efficacy for treatment of melanoma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lili Han
- School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072 P. R. China
| | - Peiling Wang
- School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072 P. R. China
| | - Yang Sun
- School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072 P. R. China
| | - Sijing Liu
- School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072 P. R. China
| | - Jun Dai
- School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072 P. R. China.,Division of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53705 USA.,Cutaneous Biology Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA 02129 USA
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21
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Groner B, von Manstein V. Jak Stat signaling and cancer: Opportunities, benefits and side effects of targeted inhibition. Mol Cell Endocrinol 2017; 451:1-14. [PMID: 28576744 DOI: 10.1016/j.mce.2017.05.033] [Citation(s) in RCA: 187] [Impact Index Per Article: 26.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2017] [Accepted: 05/27/2017] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
The effects of Jak Stat signaling and the persistent activation of Stat3 and Stat5 on tumor cell survival, proliferation and invasion have made the Jak Stat pathway a favorite target for drug development and cancer therapy. This notion was strengthened when additional biological functions of Stat signaling in cancer and their roles in the regulation of cytokine dependent inflammation and immunity in the tumor microenvironment were discovered. Stats act not only as transcriptional inducers, but affect gene expression via epigenetic modifications, induce epithelial mesenchymal transition, generate a pro-tumorigenic microenvironment, promote cancer stem cell self-renewal and differentiation, and help to establish the pre-metastatic niche formation. The effects of Jak Stat inhibition on the suppression of pro-inflammatory responses appears most promising and could become a strategy in the prevention of tumor progression. The direct and mediated mechanisms of Jak Stat signaling in and on tumors cells, the interactions with other signaling pathways and transcription factors and the targeting of the functionally crucial secondary modifications of Stat molecules suggest novel approaches to the future development of Jak Stat based cancer therapeutics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bernd Groner
- Georg Speyer Haus, Institute for Tumor Biology and Experimental Therapy, Paul Ehrlich Str. 42, D-60596 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
| | - Viktoria von Manstein
- Georg Speyer Haus, Institute for Tumor Biology and Experimental Therapy, Paul Ehrlich Str. 42, D-60596 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
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22
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Friedman AA, Xia Y, Trippa L, Le LP, Igras V, Frederick DT, Wargo JA, Tanabe KK, Lawrence DP, Neuberg DS, Flaherty KT, Fisher DE. Feasibility of Ultra-High-Throughput Functional Screening of Melanoma Biopsies for Discovery of Novel Cancer Drug Combinations. Clin Cancer Res 2017; 23:4680-4692. [PMID: 28446504 DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.ccr-16-3029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2016] [Revised: 02/22/2017] [Accepted: 04/21/2017] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Purpose: Successful development of targeted therapy combinations for cancer patients depends on first discovering such combinations in predictive preclinical models. Stable cell lines and mouse xenograft models can have genetic and phenotypic drift and may take too long to generate to be useful as a personalized medicine tool.Experimental Design: To overcome these limitations, we have used a platform of ultra-high-throughput functional screening of primary biopsies preserving both cancer and stroma cell populations from melanoma patients to nominate such novel combinations from a library of thousands of drug combinations in a patient-specific manner within days of biopsy. In parallel, patient-derived xenograft (PDX) mouse models were created and novel combinations tested for their ability to shrink matched PDXs.Results: The screening method identifies specific drug combinations in tumor cells with patterns that are distinct from those obtained from stable cell lines. Screening results were highly specific to individual patients. For patients with matched PDX models, we confirmed that individualized novel targeted therapy combinations could inhibit tumor growth. In particular, a combination of multi-kinase and PI3K/Akt inhibitors was effective in some BRAF-wild-type melanomas, and the addition of cediranib to the BRAF inhibitor PLX4720 was effective in a PDX model with BRAF mutation.Conclusions: This proof-of-concept study demonstrates the feasibility of using primary biopsies directly for combinatorial drug discovery, complementing stable cell lines and xenografts, but with much greater speed and efficiency. This process could potentially be used in a clinical setting to rapidly identify therapeutic strategies for individual patients. Clin Cancer Res; 23(16); 4680-92. ©2017 AACR.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam A Friedman
- Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.,Dermatology and Cutaneous Biology Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts
| | - Yun Xia
- Dermatology and Cutaneous Biology Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts.,Department of Plastic Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Lorenzo Trippa
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Long Phi Le
- Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Vivien Igras
- Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.,Dermatology and Cutaneous Biology Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts
| | - Dennie T Frederick
- Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Jennifer A Wargo
- Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.,Division of Surgical Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts
| | - Kenneth K Tanabe
- Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.,Division of Surgical Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts
| | - Donald P Lawrence
- Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Donna S Neuberg
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Keith T Flaherty
- Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - David E Fisher
- Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. .,Dermatology and Cutaneous Biology Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts
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23
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A Computational Approach for Identifying Synergistic Drug Combinations. PLoS Comput Biol 2017; 13:e1005308. [PMID: 28085880 PMCID: PMC5234777 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005308] [Citation(s) in RCA: 55] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2016] [Accepted: 12/12/2016] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
A promising alternative to address the problem of acquired drug resistance is to rely on combination therapies. Identification of the right combinations is often accomplished through trial and error, a labor and resource intensive process whose scale quickly escalates as more drugs can be combined. To address this problem, we present a broad computational approach for predicting synergistic combinations using easily obtainable single drug efficacy, no detailed mechanistic understanding of drug function, and limited drug combination testing. When applied to mutant BRAF melanoma, we found that our approach exhibited significant predictive power. Additionally, we validated previously untested synergy predictions involving anticancer molecules. As additional large combinatorial screens become available, this methodology could prove to be impactful for identification of drug synergy in context of other types of cancers. While targeted therapies have achieved remarkable antitumor responses, resistance to targeted agents frequently develops and renders the targeted drug ineffective. Combination therapies have been successful in delaying resistance and overcoming resistance. Additional goals of combination therapy are to achieve enhanced effectiveness through drug synergy and to reduce the frequency and severity of adverse events through lower individual drug dosage levels. However the identification of synergistic drug combinations is often a labor and resource intensive process. Therefore a systematic method for identifying optimal combinations would be highly impactful. Here we present a computational method for predicting synergistic and effective drug combinations using only single drug efficacy information. We have applied and validated our method on a high-throughput drug screen of 780 combinations involving 40 individual molecules in the context of mutant BRAF melanoma. Additionally we have made predictions and validated 11 previously untested drug combinations with a diverse set of outcomes.
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24
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Cassidy JW, Batra AS, Greenwood W, Bruna A. Patient-derived tumour xenografts for breast cancer drug discovery. Endocr Relat Cancer 2016; 23:T259-T270. [PMID: 27702751 PMCID: PMC5118939 DOI: 10.1530/erc-16-0251] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2016] [Accepted: 10/04/2016] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Despite remarkable advances in our understanding of the drivers of human malignancies, new targeted therapies often fail to show sufficient efficacy in clinical trials. Indeed, the cost of bringing a new agent to market has risen substantially in the last several decades, in part fuelled by extensive reliance on preclinical models that fail to accurately reflect tumour heterogeneity. To halt unsustainable rates of attrition in the drug discovery process, we must develop a new generation of preclinical models capable of reflecting the heterogeneity of varying degrees of complexity found in human cancers. Patient-derived tumour xenograft (PDTX) models prevail as arguably the most powerful in this regard because they capture cancer's heterogeneous nature. Herein, we review current breast cancer models and their use in the drug discovery process, before discussing best practices for developing a highly annotated cohort of PDTX models. We describe the importance of extensive multidimensional molecular and functional characterisation of models and combination drug-drug screens to identify complex biomarkers of drug resistance and response. We reflect on our own experiences and propose the use of a cost-effective intermediate pharmacogenomic platform (the PDTX-PDTC platform) for breast cancer drug and biomarker discovery. We discuss the limitations and unanswered questions of PDTX models; yet, still strongly envision that their use in basic and translational research will dramatically change our understanding of breast cancer biology and how to more effectively treat it.
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Affiliation(s)
- John W Cassidy
- Breast Cancer Functional GenomicsCRUK Cambridge Research Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Ankita S Batra
- Breast Cancer Functional GenomicsCRUK Cambridge Research Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Wendy Greenwood
- Breast Cancer Functional GenomicsCRUK Cambridge Research Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Alejandra Bruna
- Department of OncologyUniversity of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
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25
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High-Order Drug Combinations Are Required to Effectively Kill Colorectal Cancer Cells. Cancer Res 2016; 76:6950-6963. [DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.can-15-3425] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2015] [Revised: 06/26/2016] [Accepted: 08/02/2016] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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26
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Guo B, Hui Q, Zhang Y, Chang P, Tao K. miR-194 is a negative regulator of GEF-H1 pathway in melanoma. Oncol Rep 2016; 36:2412-20. [PMID: 27573550 DOI: 10.3892/or.2016.5020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2016] [Accepted: 08/01/2016] [Indexed: 11/05/2022] Open
Abstract
The incidence and associated mortality of melanoma continues to increase worldwide. At present, there is no curative therapy for advanced stage of melanoma. It is necessary to find new indicators of prognosis and therapeutic targets. Increasing evidence shows that miRNA can provide potential candidate biomarkers for melanoma and therapeutic targets. GEF-H1, a regulator of RhoA, as oncogenic driver in melanoma, promotes the growth and invasion of melanoma. miR-194 is a tumor-suppressor gene in multiple tumors, such as bladder and non-small cell lung cancer, and clear cell renal cell carcinoma. In the present study, we demonstrated that GEF-H1 serves as target of miR-194. Overexpression of miR-194 downregulates the GEF-H1/RhoA pathway, inhibits melanoma cancer cell proliferation and metastasis. Furthermore, miR-194 expression is negatively associated with tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stages. Briefly, our findings provided new theoretical basis for melanoma treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bingyu Guo
- Reconstructive and Plastic Surgery, The General Hospital of Shenyang Military Region, Shenhe, Shenyang, Liaoning 110016, P.R. China
| | - Qiang Hui
- Reconstructive and Plastic Surgery, The General Hospital of Shenyang Military Region, Shenhe, Shenyang, Liaoning 110016, P.R. China
| | - Yu Zhang
- Reconstructive and Plastic Surgery, The General Hospital of Shenyang Military Region, Shenhe, Shenyang, Liaoning 110016, P.R. China
| | - Peng Chang
- Reconstructive and Plastic Surgery, The General Hospital of Shenyang Military Region, Shenhe, Shenyang, Liaoning 110016, P.R. China
| | - Kai Tao
- Reconstructive and Plastic Surgery, The General Hospital of Shenyang Military Region, Shenhe, Shenyang, Liaoning 110016, P.R. China
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27
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Wang J, Shu M, Wen X, Wang Y, Wang Y, Hu Y, Lin Z. Discovery of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors by quantitative structure–activity relationships, molecular dynamics simulation and free energy calculation. RSC Adv 2016. [DOI: 10.1039/c6ra03743g] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Employing the combined strategy to understand the features of KDR–ligands complexes, and provide a basis for rational design of inhibitors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juan Wang
- School of Pharmacy and Bioengineering
- Chongqing University of Technology
- Chongqing 400054
- China
- Key Laboratory of Biorheological Science and Technology (Ministry of Education)
| | - Mao Shu
- School of Pharmacy and Bioengineering
- Chongqing University of Technology
- Chongqing 400054
- China
| | - Xiaorong Wen
- School of Pharmacy and Bioengineering
- Chongqing University of Technology
- Chongqing 400054
- China
| | - Yuanliang Wang
- Key Laboratory of Biorheological Science and Technology (Ministry of Education)
- Research Center of Bioinspired Material Science and Engineering
- Bioengineering College
- Chongqing University
- Chongqing 400044
| | - Yuanqiang Wang
- School of Pharmacy and Bioengineering
- Chongqing University of Technology
- Chongqing 400054
- China
| | - Yong Hu
- School of Pharmacy and Bioengineering
- Chongqing University of Technology
- Chongqing 400054
- China
| | - Zhihua Lin
- School of Pharmacy and Bioengineering
- Chongqing University of Technology
- Chongqing 400054
- China
- College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
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