A novel patient stratification strategy to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of dasatinib in glioblastoma [Illumina]

ABSTRACT: Abstract. Background: Glioblastoma is the most common primary malignancy of the central nervous system with dismal prognosis. Differential gene expression classifies IDH-wildtype glioblastoma into three subtypes: proneural, mesenchymal and classical. Dasatinib, an inhibitor of the proto-oncogene tyrosine-protein kinase SRC, is one of many therapeutics that, despite promising preclinical results, has failed to improve overall survival in glioblastoma patients in clinical trials. We examined whether glioblastoma subtypes differ in their response to dasatinib therapy and could hence be used for patient enrichment strategies in clinical trials. Methods: We carried out in silico analyses of the TCGA glioblastoma gene expression data and single-cell RNA-Seq data, in combination with in vitro experiments using glioblastoma stem-like cells (GSCs) derived from primary patient tumors with complimentary gene expression profiling and immunohistochemistry analyses of tumor samples. Results: Patients suffering from the mesenchymal subtype of glioblastoma showed higher SRC pathway activation based on gene expression profiling, and accordingly, mesenchymal cells were more sensitive to SRC inhibition by dasatinib compared to proneural and classical cells. Furthermore, SERPINH1, a heat-shock protein relevant in many cancer entities, was shown to highly correlate with dasatinib response and with the mesenchymal subtype. Notably, SRC phosphorylation status was not able to reliably predict response to dasatinib treatment. Conclusion: This work highlights the need for rational methods of patient selection for clinical trials, and retrospectively sheds light on a possible gene expression subtype-led patient stratification strategy that could have improved the outcome of SRC inhibition in patients and could have implications for future trials. 

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE159607 | GEO | 2020/10/20

REPOSITORIES: GEO