Recent whole-exome sequencing studies of hundreds of high-risk neuroblastoma (hNB) patients have identified Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (ALK) as the only directly ‘druggable’ target with a significant mutation rate (9%). ALK is a receptor tyrosine kinase whose dysregulation has been implicated as the driver lesion in a variety of cancer types, including Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) and various paediatric malignancies. As a kinase normally only expressed during early development in the foetal brain, ALK is an ideal therapeutic target and it has proven relatively simple to target therapeutically. However, resistance to ALK-targeted therapy, particularly in ALK+ NSCLC patients has frequently been observed. The majority of the acquired resistance mechanisms noted in NSCLC patients rely on bypass signalling pathways, which are tissue-context dependent. To proactively identify and develop strategies to counter these varied yet expected resistance mechanisms in other ALK-driven tumours, we must gain a better insight of the bypass-track mechanism(s) in a tumour-specific manner. The present study aimed to functionally identify putative resistance mechanisms against ALK inhibitors via extensive CRISPR/Cas9-based genome-wide knockout (GeCKO) or overexpression screens (SAM) in the human neuroblastoma cell line, SHSY-5Y, to develop novel therapeutic strategies for ALK mutant NBs. The GeCKO screen identified a total of 39 genes and miRNAs, and the SAM overexpression screen identified 25 genes that induce resistance to ALK inhibitors. These putative resistance-inducing candidates were then aligned with a publicly available expression dataset of hNB patients (n = 476) to identify those with prognostic significance (Kaplan-Meier event-free survival analysis), specifically those that are indicative of relapse risk. Furthermore, all candidates identified from the screen were individually validated in vitro. Two of the candidates, one from each of the knockout and overexpression screens, were further investigated. Inhibition of hsa-miR-1304-5p, identified from GeCKO screen, induced resistance to ALK inhibitors. Interestingly, interference of has-miR-1304-5p, in the absence of ALK inhibitors, also enabled enhanced cell viability whilst the transfection of its mimic led to a significant reduction of viability across 17 distinct NB cell lines. Through genome-wide cDNA microarrays, in silico predictions, and UTR-luciferase assays, this study identified hsa-miR-1304-5p to be a major regulator of the Ras/MAP Kinase pathway. Overexpression of PIM1, identified from the SAM screen, in NB cell lines induced resistance to ALK inhibitors and this phenotype could be reversed on transducing cells with RNAi against PIM1. Interestingly, inhibition of PIM1 in wild-type cell lines via RNAi or pharmacological compounds led to substantially enhanced potency of ALK inhibitors suggesting PIM1 inhibitors as combinatorial agents with ALK inhibitors for the therapy of treatment-naive hNB. Through protein analysis of all identified downstream targets of PIM1, this study revealed NB-specific actions of the PIM1 oncoprotein that include the inactivation of the pro-apoptotic protein BAD. In summary, this study has identified mechanisms of resistance to ALK inhibitors as well as novel front-line therapeutic strategies for hNB patients that should be implemented clinically.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:725600 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Lee, Liam Changwoo |
| Contributors | Turner, Suzanne Dawn |
| Publisher | University of Cambridge |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/267921 |
Page generated in 0.0019 seconds