Medical Specialties Commons^™

Gsk-3484862, A Dnmt1 Degrader, Promotes Dnmt3b Expression In Lung Cancer Cells, Qin Chen, Swanand Hardikar, Kimie Kondo, Nan Dai, Ivan R Corrêa Jr, Meigen Yu, Marcos R Estecio, Xing Zhang, Taiping Chen, Xiaodong Cheng

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

DNA methylation alterations, including hypermethylation and silencing of tumor suppressor genes, contribute to cancer formation and progression. The FDA-approved nucleoside analogs azacytidine and decitabine are effective demethylating agents for hematologic malignancies but their general use has been limited by their toxicity and ineffectiveness against solid tumors. GSK-3484862, a dicyanopyridine-containing, DNMT1-selective inhibitor and degrader, offers a promising lead for developing novel demethylating therapeutics. Here, we demonstrate that GSK-3484862 treatment upregulates DNMT3B expression in lung cancer cell lines (A549 and NCI-H1299). Disrupting DNMT3B in NCI-H1299 sensitizes these cells to GSK-3484862, enhancing its inhibitory effects on cell viability and growth. GSK-3484862 treatment induces …

Nlrp3 Inflammasome Activation Expands The Immunosuppressive Myeloid Stroma And Antagonizes The Therapeutic Benefit Of Sting Activation In Glioblastoma, Spencer T Lea, Chao-Hsien Chen, Jun Wei, Ivana William, Inés Lopez Del Castillo, Michael A Curran

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and deadly primary brain malignancy and is clinically refractory to immunotherapy. Active NLRP3 inflammasome signaling and IL-1β secretion have been observed in GBM, and NLRP3-driven myeloid-derived suppressor cell (MDSC) recruitment can mediate cancer immune evasion. Agonists of the cytosolic double-stranded DNA-sensing stimulator of IFN gene (STING) pathway can mediate proinflammatory conversion of cancer MDSCs; however, secretion of the NLRP3 products IL-1β and IL-18 has also been observed in certain myeloid populations following STING activation. In this study, we aimed to determine both the potential mechanistic synergy between STING and NLRP3 agonists, and the effects …

Advancing The Development Of Trip13 Inhibitors: A High-Throughput Screening Approach, Rae M Sammons, Soma Ghosh, Lacin Yapindi, Eun Jeong Cho, Faye M Johnson, Kevin N Dalby

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

TRIP13, a promising target for cancer therapy, has been identified as a key regulator of the mitotic checkpoint. Overexpression of TRIP13 is associated with poor clinical outcomes in various cancers. Inhibition of TRIP13 has the potential to address therapeutic challenges in cancer, particularly in therapy-resistant and Rb-deficient cancers. Despite the potential therapeutic benefits of TRIP13 inhibition, the development of TRIP13 inhibitors has been hindered by the lack of a robust high-throughput screening (HTS) assay. We developed a luminescence-based biochemical assay for TRIP13 activity to address this challenge using the ADP-Glo detection system. This assay offers high sensitivity, low background signal, …

Novel Treatment-Specific Causal Biomarkers For Colorectal Cancer By Omics Integration, Akram Yazdani, Azam Yazdani, Raul Mendez-Giraldez, Gianluigi Pillonetto, Esmat Samiei, Reza Hadi, Heinz-Josef Lenz, Alan P Venook, Ahmad Samiei, Andrew B Nixon, Joseph A Lucci, Scott Kopetz, Monica M Bertagnolli, Federico Innocenti

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

While monoclonal antibody-based targeted therapies have substantially improved progression-free survival in cancer patients, the variability in individual responses poses a significant challenge in patient care. Therefore, identifying cancer subtypes and their associated biomarkers is required for assigning effective treatment. In this study, we integrated genotype and pre-treatment tissue RNA-seq data and identified biomarkers causally associated with the overall survival (OS) of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients treated with either cetuximab or bevacizumab. We performed enrichment analysis for specific consensus molecular subtypes (CMS) of CRC and evaluated differential expression of identified genes using paired tumor and normal tissue from an external cohort. …

Neovascular Pruning By Ido1 Inhibitors Can Potentiate Immunogenic Cytotoxicity Of Ischemia-Targeted Agents To Synergistically Enhance Anti-Pd-1 Responsiveness, Shih-Chun Shen, Souvik Dey, James B. Duhadaway, Erika Sutanto-Ward, Maurice T. Hampton, Serguei V. Kozlov, George C. Prendergast, Alexander J. Muller

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Strategies for deploying indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1)-targeted therapies for use against cancer have focused on IDO1's role in promoting peripheral immune tolerance that shields tumors from effector T cells. However, preclinical investigation of both primary and metastatic tumor development in the lungs has uncovered a previously unappreciated role for IDO1 in directing a counterregulatory response to interferon (IFN)-γ that realigns the local inflammatory environment to promote tumor neovascularization. Understanding how to therapeutically leverage the ability of IDO1 inhibitors to subvert inflammatory neovascularization within the tumor microenvironment has potential ramifications for future clinical development of these compounds.

METHODS: Pulmonary metastases …

Heterozygous Kmt2d Loss Diminishes Enhancers To Render Medulloblastoma Cells Vulnerable To Combinatory Inhibition Of Lsd1 And Oxphos, Shilpa S Dhar, Calena Brown, Ali Rizvi, Lauren Reed, Sivareddy Kotla, Constantin Zod, Janak Abraham, Jun-Ichi Abe, Veena Rajaram, Kaifu Chen, Min Gyu Lee

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4) methyltransferase KMT2D (also called MLL4) is one of the most frequently mutated epigenetic modifiers in many cancers, including medulloblastoma (MB). Notably, heterozygous KMT2D loss frequently occurs in MB and other cancers. However, its oncogenic role remains largely uncharacterized. Here, we show that heterozygous Kmt2d loss in murine cerebellar regions promotes MB genesis driven by heterozygous loss of the MB-suppressor gene Ptch via the upregulation of tumor-promoting programs (e.g., oxidative phosphorylation [OXPHOS]). Downregulation of the transcription-repressive tumor suppressor NCOR2 by heterozygous Kmt2d loss, along with Ptch

Decoding Resistance To Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors In Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Comprehensive Analysis Of Plasma Proteomics And Therapeutic Implications, Michal Harel, Nili Dahan, Coren Lahav, Eyal Jacob, Yehonatan Elon, Igor Puzanov, Ronan J. Kelly, Yuval Shaked, Raya Leibowitz, David P. Carbone, David R. Gandara, Adam P. Dicker

Department of Radiation Oncology Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have shown substantial benefit for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, resistance to ICIs remains a major clinical challenge. Here, we perform a comprehensive bioinformatic analysis of plasma proteomic profiles to explore the underlying biology of treatment resistance in NSCLC.

METHODS: The analysis was performed on 388 "resistance-associated proteins" (RAPs) that were previously described as pretreatment plasma proteomic predictors within the PROphet computational model designed to predict ICI clinical benefit in NSCLC. Putative tissue origins of the RAPs were explored using publicly available datasets. Enrichment analyses were performed to investigate RAP-related biological …

Comprehensive Evaluation Of Phosphoproteomic-Based Kinase Activity Inference, Sophia Müller-Dott, Eric J Jaehnig, Khoi Pham Munchic, Wen Jiang, Tomer M Yaron-Barir, Sara R Savage, Martin Garrido-Rodriguez, Jared L Johnson, Alessandro Lussana, Evangelia Petsalaki, Jonathan T Lei, Aurelien Dugourd, Karsten Krug, Lewis C Cantley, D R Mani, Bing Zhang, Julio Saez-Rodriguez

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Kinases regulate cellular processes and are essential for understanding cellular function and disease. To investigate the regulatory state of a kinase, numerous methods have been developed to infer kinase activities from phosphoproteomics data using kinase-substrate libraries. However, few phosphorylation sites can be attributed to an upstream kinase in these libraries, limiting the scope of kinase activity inference. Moreover, inferred activities vary across methods, necessitating evaluation for accurate interpretation. Here, we present benchmarKIN, an R package enabling comprehensive evaluation of kinase activity inference methods. Alongside classical perturbation experiments, benchmarKIN introduces a tumor-based benchmarking approach utilizing multi-omics data to identify highly active …

Simultaneous Targeting Of Tumor Cells And Tumor-Associated Macrophages To Reprogram Glioblastoma Using Trypsinized Extracellular Vesicles Carrying Tumor Suppressive Microrna, Grace H Nguyen, Minhye Noh, Jin Muk Kang, Alexandra A Miller, Minxin Huang, Jiyeon Kim, Jeong-Yeon Lee, Sangwoon Chung, Hongyu Wang, George A Calin, Cynthia Ju, Holger K Eltzschig, Yeshavanth Banasavadi-Siddegowda, Zhongming Zhao, Ji Young Yoo, Tae Jin Lee

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Glioblastoma (GBM) remains difficult to treat due to poor drug delivery across the blood-brain barrier and an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME). Tumor-suppressive microRNAs (miRNAs) offer a promising strategy to reprogram both tumor cells and the TME, but inefficient delivery systems limit their clinical application. We previously reported that tumor-suppressive miR-138 regresses tumor growth in preclinical GBM models. Here, we demonstrate that trypsin digestion of extracellular vesicles (EVs) enhances labeling efficiency with folate (FA), enhancing selective targeting of folate receptor (FR)-positive GBM cells and enabling simultaneous targeting of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). FA-labeled trypsinized EVs (tEVs) loaded with miR-138 inhibit tumor growth, …

In Vivo Crispr Activation Screen Identifies Acyl-Coa-Binding Protein As A Driver Of Bone Metastasis, Hongqi Teng, Qinglei Hang, Caishang Zheng, Yuelong Yan, Shaomin Liu, Yang Zhao, Yalan Deng, Litong Nie, Weiche Wu, Marisela Sheldon, Zachary Yu, Wei Shi, Jianxuan Gao, Chenling Meng, Consuelo Martinez, Jie Zhang, Fan Yao, Yutong Sun, Di Zhao, Boyi Gan, Tong Meng, Li Ma

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

One of the most common sites of cancer metastasis is to the bone. Bone metastasis is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality, and current therapeutic interventions remain largely palliative. Metastasizing tumor cells need to reprogram their metabolic states to adapt to the nutrient environment of distant organs; however, the role and translational relevance of lipid metabolism in bone metastasis remain unclear. Here, we used an in vivo CRISPR activation screening system coupled with positive selection to identify acyl-coenzyme A (CoA) binding protein (ACBP) as a bone metastasis driver. In nonmetastatic and weakly metastatic cancer cells, overexpression of wild-type ACBP, but …

Discovery Of Novel, Potent, And Orally Bioavailable Smarca2 Proteolysis-Targeting Chimeras With Synergistic Antitumor Activity In Combination With Kirsten Rat Sarcoma Viral Oncogene Homologue G12c Inhibitors, Sasikumar Kotagiri, Yawen Wang, Yanyan Han, Xiaobing Liang, Nicholas Blazanin, Hira Mazhar, Manu Sebastian, Phuong Kieu Nguyen, Yongying Jiang, Yonathan Lissanu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Cancer genomic studies have identified frequent mutations in subunits of the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex, including SMARCA4 in nonsmall cell lung cancer with a frequency of up to 33% in advanced-stage disease, making it the most frequently mutated complex. We and others have identified SMARCA2 to be synthetic lethal to SMARCA4, indicating that SMARCA2 is a high-value therapeutic target. Here, we disclose the discovery and characterization of potent, selective, and orally bioavailable cereblon-based SMARCA2 PROTACs. Biochemically, we showed that YDR1 and YD54 are potent SMARCA2 degraders. Further, we showed the antitumor growth inhibitory activity of YDR1 and YD54 in SMARCA4 …

Axl Promotes Inflammatory Breast Cancer Progression By Regulating Immunosuppressive Macrophage Polarization, Lan T H Phi, Yating Cheng, Yohei Funakoshi, Francois Bertucci, Pascal Finetti, Steven J Van Laere, Fang Zou, James P Long, Suguru Ogata, Savitri Krishnamurthy, James M Reuben, Jason M Foulks, Steven L Warner, Jennifer M Rosenbluth, Anil K Sood, Debu Tripathy, Naoto T Ueno, Xiaoping Wang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are key promoters of inflammatory breast cancer (IBC), the most aggressive form of breast cancer. The receptor tyrosine kinase AXL is highly expressed in various cancer types, including IBC, but its role in TAMs remains unexplored.

Methods: We examined the effects of AXL inhibitor TP-0903 on tumor growth and tumor microenvironment (TME) component M2 macrophages (CD206+) in IBC and triple-negative breast cancer mouse models using flow cytometry and immunohistochemical staining. Additionally, we knocked out AXL expression in human THP-1 monocytes and evaluated the effect of AXL signaling on immunosuppressive M2 macrophage polarization and IBC cell growth …

Genomic Characterization Of High-Grade Serous Ovarian Carcinoma Reveals Distinct Somatic Features In Black Individuals, Katherine A Lawson-Michod, Jeffrey R Marks, Lindsay J Collin, David A Nix, Natalie R Davidson, Chad D Huff, Yao Yu, Aaron Atkinson, Courtney E Johnson, Lucas A Salas, Lauren C Peres, Casey S Greene, Joellen M Schildkraut, Jennifer A Doherty

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Black individuals experience worse survival after a diagnosis of high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSC) than White individuals and are underrepresented in ovarian cancer research. To date, the understanding of the molecular and genomic heterogeneity of HGSC is based primarily on the evaluation of tumors from White individuals. In the present study, we performed whole-exome sequencing on HGSC samples from 211 Black patients to identify significantly mutated genes and characterize mutational signatures, assessing their distributions by gene expression subtypes. The occurrence and frequency of somatic mutations and signatures by self-reported race were compared with historic data from The Cancer Genome Atlas …

Longitudinal Profiling Of Circulating Tumor Dna Reveals The Evolutionary Dynamics Of Metastatic Prostate Cancer During Serial Therapy, Yuehui Zhao, Naveen Ramesh, Ping Xu, Emi Sei, Min Hu, Shanshan Bai, Patricia Troncoso, Ana M Aparicio, Christopher J Logothetis, Paul G Corn, Nicholas E Navin, Amado J Zurita

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Treatment decisions in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer are mostly guided by clinical variables, but efforts to molecularly monitor the disease remain hampered by challenges in acquiring tumor tissue repeatedly. In this study, we simultaneously profiled the genome copy number and exome in longitudinal plasma circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) acquired before, during, and upon progression to serial treatments with androgen signaling inhibitors and taxane chemotherapy from 60 patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (2-10 samples per patient). The genomic data were used to delineate the clonal substructure and evolutionary dynamics of each patient, and an evolutionary dynamic index was developed to …

Rare Jugular Bulb Tumor Presenting As Bilateral Papilledema, Yoona Choe, Matthew Boyle, Peter Maduka

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Optic disc edema, which may arise from a range of inflammatory, ischemic, compressive, infiltrative, or hereditary causes, can also indicate elevated intracranial pressure in the form of papilledema. Given its potential association with life-threatening conditions such as mass lesions or venous sinus thrombosis, timely identification and thorough evaluation are critical. In this case, a 61-year-old female presented with a complaint of a new-onset floater in her left eye. Despite minimal symptoms and an unremarkable systemic review, dilated fundus examination revealed bilateral optic disc edema with hyperemia and hemorrhages, prompting urgent neuroimaging. MRI and MRV identified venous thrombi in the right …

Targeting Bard1 Suppresses A Myc-Dependent Transcriptional Program And Tumor Growth In Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma, Sohum Patel, Eleanor Jenkins, Rutuj P. Kusurkar, Sherry Lee, Wei Jiang, Avinoam Nevler, Matthew Mccoy, Michael J. Pishvaian, Rosalie C. Sears, Jonathan R. Brody, Charles J. Yeo, Aditi Jain

Department of Surgery Faculty Papers

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains one of the deadliest cancers demanding better and more effective therapies. BARD1 or BRCA1-Associated -Ring Domain-1 plays a pivotal role in homologous recombination repair (HRR). However, its function and the underlying molecular mechanisms in PDAC are still not fully elucidated. Here, we demonstrate that BARD1 is overexpressed in PDAC and its genetic inhibition suppresses c-Myc and disrupts c-Myc dependent transcriptional program. Mechanistically, BARD1 stabilizes c-Myc through ubiquitin-proteasome system by regulating FBXW7. Importantly, targeting BARD1 using either siRNAs or CRISPR/Cas9 deletion blocks PDAC growth in vitro and in vivo, without any signs of toxicity to mice. …

Metastatic Medulloblastoma Remodels The Local Leptomeningeal Microenvironment To Promote Further Metastatic Colonization And Growth, Namal Abeysundara, Alexandra Rasnitsyn, Vernon Fong, Alexander Bahcheli, Randy Van Ommeren, Kyle Juraschka, Maria Vladoiu, Winnie Ong, Bryn Livingston, Pasqualino De Antonellis, Michelle Ly, Borja López Holgado, Olga Sirbu, Shahrzad Bahrampour, Hyun-Kee Min, Jerry Fan, Carolina Nor, Abhirami Visvanathan, Jiao Zhang, Hao Wang, Lei Qin, Ning Huang, Jonelle Pallotta, Tajana Douglas, Esta Mak, Haipeng Su, Karen Ng, Kevin Yang Zhang, Craig Daniels, Calixto-Hope G Lucas, Charles G Eberhart, Hailong Liu, Tao Jiang, Faiyaz Notta, Vijay Ramaswamy, Jüri Reimand, Marco Gallo, Jeremy N Rich, Xiaochong Wu, Xi Huang, Michael D Taylor

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Leptomeningeal metastases are the major source of morbidity and mortality for patients with medulloblastoma. The biology of the leptomeningeal metastases and the local tumour microenvironment are poorly characterized. Here we show that metastasis-associated meningeal fibroblasts (MB-MAFs) are transcriptionally distinct and signal extensively to tumour cells and the tumour microenvironment. Metastatic cells secrete platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) ligands into the local microenvironment to chemotactically recruit meningeal fibroblasts. Meningeal fibroblasts are reprogrammed to become MB-MAFs, expressing distinct transcriptomes and secretomes, including bone morphogenetic proteins. Active bone morphogenetic protein signalling and co-implantation of tumour cells with MB-MAFs enhances the colonization of the leptomeninges …

Phase Ii Trial Of Atezolizumab And Bevacizumab For Treatment Of Hpv-Positive Unresectable Or Metastatic Squamous Cell Carcinoma Of The Anal Canal, Van K Morris, Suyu Liu, Kangyu Lin, Haifeng Zhu, Seema Prasad, Armeen Mahvash, Priya Bhosale, Baohua Sun, Edwin R Parra, Ignacio Wistuba, Arjun Peddireddy, James Yao, Julia Mendoza-Perez, Mark Knafl, Scott E Woodman, Cathy Eng, Daniel Halperin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: Anti-PD-L1 antibodies are associated with responses in < 25% of patients with metastatic human papillomavirus-associated malignancies. VEGF signaling causes immune evasion and immune suppression within the tumor. We evaluated the anti-PD-L1 antibody atezolizumab and anti-VEGF antibody bevacizumab for patients with unresectable, advanced anal cancer.

Patients and methods: For this phase II study, participants with previously treated, immunotherapy-naïve anal cancer received atezolizumab (1,200 mg) and bevacizumab (15 mg/kg) intravenously every 21 days. Responses were evaluated every 9 weeks (RECIST version 1.1). The primary endpoint was the best radiographic response. Median survival was estimated by Kaplan-Meier and compared for selected biomarkers (including paired pre- and on-treatment biopsies) using a log-rank test.

Results: Among 20 participants, the overall response rate was 11% [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.2-32]. Median progression-free survival and overall survival were 4.1 months (95% CI, 2.6-not …

A Biomarker Signature-Guided Clinical Trial Design For Precision Medicine, Yuan Li, Dejian Lai, Ruosha Li, Han Chen, Xuelin Huang, Jing Ning

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Targeted cancer therapies aim to effectively treat patients with specific biomarker profiles. Nevertheless, these therapies may not always precisely hit their intended targets, leading to uncertainty about the specific subset of patients who will benefit. To address this uncertainty, the identification of sensitive patient subsets in clinical trials becomes crucial. Our proposed phase IIB/III clinical trial design seeks to pinpoint a biomarker signature with precision, ensuring the accurate identification of patients who will respond to a specific treatment. This approach allows for the selective enrollment of sensitive patients to maximize benefits for trial participants. We incorporate Bayesian methodology to facilitate …

Chd1 Loss Reprograms Srebp2-Driven Cholesterol Synthesis To Fuel Androgen-Responsive Growth And Castration Resistance In Spop-Mutated Prostate Tumors, Feiyu Chen, Haoyan Li, Yin Wang, Ximing Tang, Kevin Lin, Qidong Li, Chenling Meng, Wei Shi, Javier Leo, Xin Liang, Jie Zhang, Vivien Van, Iqbal Mahmud, Bo Wei, Philip L Lorenzi, Maria G Raso, Ana Aparicio, Yue Lu, Daniel E Frigo, Boyi Gan, Di Zhao

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Despite undergoing castration, most individuals with prostate cancer (PCa) experience progression to castration-resistant PCa (CRPC), in which the androgen receptor (AR) remains an important driver. Concurrent genetic alterations in SPOP and CHD1 define a unique subtype of PCa, but their interactions in tumor progression and therapy response remain unclear. Here, we provide genetic evidence supporting that CHD1 loss accelerates disease progression and confers resistance to castration in males with SPOP-mutated PCa. By leveraging genetic engineering and multiomics, we uncovered a noncanonical function of CHD1 in lipid metabolism reprogramming via repressing the SREBP2 transcriptome. Loss of CHD1 induces cholesterol production, supplies …

Acute Brcaness Induction And Ar Pathway Blockage Through Cdk12/7/9 Degradation Enhances Parp Inhibitor Sensitivity In Prostate Cancer, Fu Gui, Baishan Jiang, Jie Jiang, Zhixiang He, Takuya Tsujino, Tomoaki Takai, Seiji Arai, Celine Pana, Jens Köllermann, Gary Andrew Bradshaw, Robyn Eisert, Marian Kalocsay, Anne Fassl, Steven P Balk, Adam S Kibel, Li Jia

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Current treatments for advanced prostate cancer (PCa) primarily target the androgen receptor (AR) pathway. However, the emergence of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) and resistance to AR pathway inhibitors (APPIs) remains ongoing challenges. Here, we present BSJ-5-63, a proteolysis-targeting chimera (PROTAC) targeting cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) CDK12, CDK7, and CDK9, offering a multipronged approach to CRPC therapy. BSJ-5-63 degrades CDK12, diminishing BRCA1 and BRCA2 expression and inducing a sustained "BRCAness" state. This sensitizes cancer cells to PARP inhibitors (PARPis) regardless of their homologous recombination repair (HRR) status. Furthermore, CDK7 and CDK9 degradation attenuates AR signaling, enhancing its therapeutic efficacy. Preclinical studies, including …

Idh Status Dictates Ohsv Mediated Metabolic Reprogramming Affecting Anti-Tumor Immunity, Upasana Sahu, Matthew P Mullarkey, Sara A Murphy, Joshua C Anderson, Vasanta Putluri, Abu Hena Mostafa Kamal, Jun Hyoung Park, Tae Jin Lee, Alexander L Ling, Benny A Kaipparettu, Ashok Sharma, Nagireddy Putluri, Pamela L Wenzel, Christopher D Willey, E Antonio Chiocca, James M Markert, Balveen Kaur

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Identification of isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) mutations has uncovered the crucial role of metabolism in gliomagenesis. Oncolytic herpes virus (oHSV) initiates direct tumor debulking by tumor lysis and activates anti-tumor immunity, however, little is known about the role of glioma metabolism in determining oHSV efficacy. Here we identify that oHSV rewires central carbon metabolism increasing glucose utilization towards oxidative phosphorylation and shuttling glutamine towards reductive carboxylation in IDH wildtype glioma. The switch in metabolism results in increased lipid synthesis and cellular ROS. PKC induces ACSL4 in oHSV treated cells leading to lipid peroxidation and ferroptosis. Ferroptosis is critical to launch an …

Rnase1-Driven Alk-Activation Is An Oncogenic Driver And Therapeutic Target In Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Zhengyu Zha, Chunxiao Liu, Meisi Yan, Cong Chen, Cheng Yu, Yaohui Chen, Chenhao Zhou, Lu Li, Yi-Chuan Li, Hiro Yamaguchi, Leiguang Ye, Tong Liu, Ying-Nai Wang, Heng-Huan Lee, Wen-Hao Yang, Li-Chuan Chan, Baozhen Ke, Jennifer L Hsu, Lieming Ding, Dong Ji, Peng Pan, Yiran Meng, Yue Pu, Lunxu Liu, Mien-Chie Hung

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Targeted therapy has achieved significant success in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), particularly in patients harboring common oncogenic driver mutations such as EGFR, KRAS, and ALK rearrangement. However, ~35-50% of NSCLC patients without tyrosine kinase mutation or rearrangement (non-mutated) cannot benefit from these targeted treatments, highlighting the urgent need for novel therapeutic strategies for this patient population. In this study, we report a non-canonical role of human secretory ribonuclease 1 (RNase1), which binds to and activates wild-type ALK in lung cancer cells, thereby triggering its downstream signaling pathway. RNase1-driven ALK-activation (RDAA) cells exhibit enhanced cell proliferation, migration, …

Lineage Tracing And Single-Cell Rna Sequencing Reveal A Common Transcriptional State In Breast Cancer Tumor-Initiating Cells Characterized By Ifn/Stat1 Activity, Eric P Souto, Ping Gong, John D Landua, Ramakrishnan Rajaram Srinivasan, Abhinaya Ganesan, Lacey E Dobrolecki, Stephen C Purdy, Xingxin Pan, Michael Zeosky, Anna Chung, S Stephen Yi, Heide L Ford, Michael T Lewis

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

A tumor cell subpopulation of tumor-initiating cells (TIC) or "cancer stem cells" is associated with therapeutic resistance, as well as both local and distant recurrences. Signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) activity is elevated in TICs in claudin-low models of human triple-negative breast cancer, which enables enrichment of TICs using a STAT-responsive reporter. Lineage tracing of TICs as they undergo cell state changes could enable a better understanding of the molecular phenotypes of TIC and uncover strategies to selectively target TICs. In this study, we developed a STAT-responsive lineage-tracing system and used it in conjunction with the original reporter …

Closing The Gaps, And Improving Somatic Structural Variant Analysis And Benchmarking Using Chm13-T2t, Luis F Paulin, Jeremy Fan, Kieran O'Neill, Erin Pleasance, Vanessa L Porter, Steven J M Jones, Fritz J Sedlazeck

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The complexities of cancer genomes are becoming more easily interpreted due to advancements in sequencing technologies and improved bioinformatic analysis. Structural variants (SVs) represent an important subset of somatic events in tumors. While the detection of SVs has been markedly improved by the development of long-read sequencing, somatic variant identification and annotation remain challenging. We hypothesized that the use of a completed human reference genome (CHM13-T2T) would improve somatic SV calling. Our findings in a tumor-normal matched benchmark sample and three patient samples show that the CHM13-T2T improves SV detection accuracy compared to GRCh38 with a notable reduction in false-positive …

Results Of The Phase I/Ii Study And Preliminary B-Cell Gene Signature Of Combined Inhibition Of Glutamine Metabolism And Egfr In Colorectal Cancer, Kristen K Ciombor, Seong-Woo Bae, Jennifer G Whisenant, Gregory D Ayers, Quanhu Sheng, Todd E Peterson, Gary T Smith, Kangyu Lin, Saikat Chowdhury, Preeti Kanikarla Marie, Alexey Sorokin, Allison S Cohen, Laura W Goff, Dana B Cardin, John Paul Shen, Scott Kopetz, Cathy Eng, Yu Shyr, Jordan Berlin, H Charles Manning

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: EGFR-targeting mAbs are essential for managing rat sarcoma virus wild-type metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), but their limited efficacy necessitates exploring immunologic and metabolic factors influencing response. This study evaluated glutamine metabolism targeting with EGFR inhibition to identify response biomarkers in patients with prior anti-EGFR treatment progression.

Patients and methods: We conducted a phase I/II trial in patients with KRAS wild-type mCRC, combining panitumumab (6 mg/kg) and CB-839 (600 mg/kg or 800 mg/kg), hypothesizing that the dual inhibition of glutamine metabolism and MAPK signaling would enhance outcomes. As study correlatives, we investigated the B-cell activation signature "B-score" and glutamine PET …

Tobacco Smoke Exposure Is A Driver Of Altered Oxidative Stress Response And Immunity In Head And Neck Cancer, Yang Li, Pedram Yadollahi, Fonma N Essien, Vasanta Putluri, Chandra Shekar R Ambati, Karthik Reddy Kami Reddy, Abu Hena Mostafa Kamal, Nagireddy Putluri, Lama M Abdurrahman, Maria E Ruiz Echartea, Keenan J Ernste, Akshar J Trivedi, Jonathan Vazquez-Perez, William H Hudson, William K Decker, Rutulkumar Patel, Abdullah A Osman, Farrah Kheradmand, Stephen Y Lai, Jeffrey N Myers, Heath D Skinner, Cristian Coarfa, Kwangwon Lee, Antrix Jain, Anna Malovannaya, Mitchell J Frederick, Vlad C Sandulache

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Exposomes are critical drivers of carcinogenesis. However, how they modulate tumor behavior remains unclear. Extensive clinical data show cigarette smoke to be a key exposome that promotes aggressive tumors, higher rates of metastasis, reduced response to chemoradiotherapy, and suppressed anti-tumor immunity. We sought to determine whether smoke itself can modulate aggressive tumor behavior in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) through reprogramming of the cellular reductive state.

Methods: Using established human and murine HNSCC cell lines and syngeneic mouse models, we utilized conventional western blotting, steady state and flux metabolomics, RNA sequencing, quantitative proteomics and flow cytometry to …

Prdm1 Is A Key Regulator Of The Nkt-Cell Central Memory Program And Effector Function, Gengwen Tian, Gabriel A Barragan, Hangjin Yu, Claudia Martinez-Amador, Akshaya Adaikkalavan, Xavier Rios, Linjie Guo, Janice M Drabek, Osmay Pardias, Xin Xu, Antonino Montalbano, Chunchao Zhang, Yanchuan Li, Amy N Courtney, Erica J Di Pierro, Leonid S Metelitsa

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Natural killer T cells (NKTs) are a promising platform for cancer immunotherapy, but few genes involved in the regulation of NKT therapeutic activity have been identified. To find regulators of NKT functional fitness, we developed a CRISPR/Cas9-based mutagenesis screen that uses a guide RNA (gRNA) library targeting 1,118 immune-related genes. Unmodified NKTs and NKTs expressing a GD2-specific chimeric antigen receptor (GD2.CAR) were transduced with the gRNA library and exposed to CD1d+ leukemia or CD1d-GD2+ neuroblastoma cells, respectively, over six challenge cycles in vitro. Quantification of gRNA abundance revealed enrichment of PRDM1-specific gRNAs in both NKTs and GD2.CAR NKTs, a result …

Bone-Induced Her2 Promotes Secondary Metastasis In Hr+/Her2- Breast Cancer, Rahat Alam, Anna Reva, David G Edwards, Bree M Lege, Laura S Munoz-Arcos, Carolina Reduzzi, Swarnima Singh, Xiaoxin Hao, Yi-Hsuan Wu, Zeru Tian, Laura M Natalee, Gargi Damle, Deniz Demircioglu, Yixian Wang, Ling Wu, Elisabetta Molteni, Dan Hasson, Bora Lim, Zbigniew Gugala, Jerry E Chipuk, Julie E Lang, Joseph A Sparano, Chonghui Cheng, Massimo Cristofanilli, Han Xiao, Xiang H-F Zhang, Igor L Bado

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Bone metastases can disseminate to secondary sites and promote breast cancer progression creating additional clinical challenges. The mechanisms contributing to secondary metastasis are barely understood. Here, we evaluate the prediction power of Her2-expressing (Her2E) circulating tumor cells (CTCs) after analyzing over 13,000 CTCs from a cohort of 137 metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients with initial HR+/Her2− status and employ preclinical models of bone metastasis (BM) to validate the role of Her2E CTCs in multi-organ metastases. While Her2 expression was higher in patients with bone metastasis, experimental analyses revealed that Her2E CTCs derived from bone lesions were more dependent on Her2 …

Soluble Mesothelin-Related Peptide As A Prognosticator In Pleural Mesothelioma Patients Receiving Checkpoint Immunotherapy, Sonali Mitra, Hee-Jin Jang, Allen Kuncheria, Sung Wook Kang, Jong Min Choi, Ji Seon Shim, Claire Lee, Priyanka Ranchod, Peter Jindra, Maheshwari Ramineni, Meera Patel, R Taylor Ripley, Shawn S Groth, Shanda H Blackmon, Bryan M Burt, Hyun-Sung Lee

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: Immune checkpoint therapy (ICT) has significantly impacted the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). Despite some promising results from combination therapies, nearly half of MPM patients do not benefit, underscoring the urgent need for reliable predictive biomarkers. This study assesses the prognostic value of serum soluble mesothelin-related peptide (SMRP) and PD-L1 levels in MPM patients receiving ICT.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 125 MPM patients treated with ICT by measuring pre-ICT serum levels of SMRP and PD-L1. We also examined the correlation of these serum levels with tumor mRNA expressions of mesothelin and PD-L1. Both univariable and …