Dataset Information

MCAK Inhibitors Induce Aneuploidy in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Models.

ABSTRACT: Standard of care for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) involves the use of microtubule poisons such as paclitaxel, which are proposed to work by inducing lethal levels of aneuploidy in tumor cells. While these drugs are initially effective in treating cancer, dose-limiting peripheral neuropathies are common. Unfortunately, patients often relapse with drug-resistant tumors. Identifying agents against targets that limit aneuploidy may be a valuable approach for therapeutic development. One potential target is the microtubule depolymerizing kinesin, MCAK, which limits aneuploidy by regulating microtubule dynamics during mitosis. Using publicly available datasets, we found that MCAK is upregulated in triple-negative breast cancer and is associated with poorer prognoses. Knockdown of MCAK in tumor-derived cell lines caused a two- to five-fold reduction in the IC₅₀ for paclitaxel, without affecting normal cells. Using FRET and image-based assays, we screened compounds from the ChemBridge 50 k library and discovered three putative MCAK inhibitors. These compounds reproduced the aneuploidy-inducing phenotype of MCAK loss, reduced clonogenic survival of TNBC cells regardless of taxane-resistance, and the most potent of the three, C4, sensitized TNBC cells to paclitaxel. Collectively, our work shows promise that MCAK may serve as both a biomarker of prognosis and as a therapeutic target.

SUBMITTER: Smith JC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10340532 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

MCAK Inhibitors Induce Aneuploidy in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Models.

Smith John C JC Husted Stefan S Pilrose Jay J Ems-McClung Stephanie C SC Stout Jane R JR Carpenter Richard L RL Walczak Claire E CE

Cancers 20230623 13

Standard of care for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) involves the use of microtubule poisons such as paclitaxel, which are proposed to work by inducing lethal levels of aneuploidy in tumor cells. While these drugs are initially effective in treating cancer, dose-limiting peripheral neuropathies are common. Unfortunately, patients often relapse with drug-resistant tumors. Identifying agents against targets that limit aneuploidy may be a valuable approach for therapeutic development. One pote ...[more]

PMID: 37444419

Similar Datasets

Project description:Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases (PARPs) are involved in many aspects of the cellular response to various forms of damage. PARP-1 and PARP-2, the most abundant PARPs, are central to the response to specific types of DNA damage, especially single-strand breaks. Inhibition of PARP activity may sensitize the cell to exogenous agents such as chemotherapy and radiation. In circumstances where rescue pathways are deficient, particularly the homologous recombination (HR)-directed DNA repair pathway, inhibition of PARP may result in "synthetic lethality." BRCA mutation-associated breast cancers are a paradigm of HR-directed repair deficient tumors. Early clinical trials have demonstrated significant activity of single-agent PARP inhibitors in BRCA-deficient breast and ovarian cancer. Because of phenotypic similarities between some "triple-negative" breast cancers (TNBC) and the most prevalent type of breast cancer seen in BRCA1 mutation carriers, some have hypothesized that TNBC might also be specifically sensitive to PARP inhibition. The activity of single-agent PARP inhibitors in TNBC has not been reported. One trial did suggest significant enhancement of the activity of platinum-based combination chemotherapy, without incremental toxicity. These studies indicate that PARP inhibition is an exciting new approach to the treatment of breast cancers in women with underlying BRCA mutations and possibly in sporadic cancers with defects in HR-directed repair. Future studies will be necessary to determine whether the effectiveness of PARP inhibitors in nonhereditary cancer requires an underlying HR defect or whether these agents may improve the activity of conventional chemotherapy by other means. In addition, studies will be required to determine whether PARP inhibitors may induce synthetic lethality in tumors with defects in pathways other than the BRCA-dependent DNA repair pathway. If either or both of these prove to be the case, then PARP inhibition may benefit a wide spectrum of cancer patients.

Project description:Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is associated with poor prognosis and limited treatment options due to the lack of important receptors (estrogen receptor [ER], progesterone receptor [PR], and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 [HER2]) used for targeted therapy. However, high-throughput in vitro drug screening of cell lines is a powerful tool for identifying effective drugs for a disease. Here, we determine the intrinsic chemosensitivity of TNBC cell lines to proteasome inhibitors (PIs), thereby identifying potentially potent 2-drug combinations for TNBC. Eight TNBC cell lines (BT-549, CAL-148, HCC1806, HCC38, HCC70, MDA-MB-436, MDA-MB-453, and MDA-MB-468) and two controls (MCF-10A and MCF-7) were first exposed to 18 drugs (11 PIs and 7 clinically relevant chemotherapeutic agents) as monotherapy, followed by prediction of potent 2-drug combinations using the IDACombo pipeline. The synergistic effects of the 2-drug combinations were evaluated with SynergyFinder in four TNBC cell lines (CAL-148, HCC1806, HCC38, and MDA-MB-468) and three controls (BT-474, MCF-7, and T47D) in vitro, followed by further evaluation of tumor regression in zebrafish tumor models established using HCC1806 and MCF-7 cells. Monotherapy identified nine effective drugs (bortezomib, carfilzomib, cisplatin, delanzomib, docetaxel, epoxomicin, MLN-2238, MLN-9708, and nedaplatin) across all cell lines. PIs (e.g., bortezomib, delanzomib, and epoxomicin) were highly potent drugs in TNBC cells, of which bortezomib and delanzomib inhibited the chymotrypsin-like activity of the 20 S proteasome by 100% at 10 µM. Moreover, several potent 2-drug combinations (e.g., bortezomib+nedaplatin and epoxomicin+epirubicin) that killed virtually 100% of cells were also identified. Although HCC1806- and MCF-7-derived xenografts treated with bortezomib+nedaplatin and carboplatin+paclitaxel were smaller, HCC1806 cells frequently metastasized to the trunk region. Taken together, we show that PIs used in combination with platinum agents or topoisomerase inhibitors exhibit increased efficiency with almost 100% inhibition in TNBC cell lines, indicating that PIs are therefore promising compounds to use as combination therapy for TNBC.

Dataset Information

MCAK Inhibitors Induce Aneuploidy in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Models.

Publications

MCAK Inhibitors Induce Aneuploidy in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Models.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets