Project description:The development of drug resistance is a major limiting factor to the efficacy of BRAF inhibitor therapy for melanoma. The goal of this study was to identify and characterize pathways that contribute to adaptive drug resistance to BRAF inhibitors.
Project description:Melanoma cells are highly plastic and have the ability to switch to a dedifferentiated, invasive phenotype in response to multiple stimuli. Here, we show that exposure of melanoma cell lines and patient specimens to multiple stresses including BRAF-MEK inhibitor therapy, hypoxia and UV-irradiation leads to an increase in histone deacetylase 8 (HDAC8) expression/activity, and in turn, the adoption of a drug-resistant, invasive phenotype. Systems level analyses using mass spectrometry-based phosphoproteomics implicated HDAC8 in the regulation of MAPK and AP-1 signaling pathways. Introduction of HDAC8 into drug-naïve melanoma cells conveyed resistance both in vitro and in in vivo xenograft models. HDAC8-mediated BRAF inhibitor resistance was mediated via receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) activation leading to Ras/CRAF/MEK/ERK signaling. Although HDACs primarily function at the histone level, they also regulate signaling through the modulation of non-histone substrates. In line with this, HDAC8 introduction decreased the acetylation of c-Jun, increasing its transcriptional activity and enriching for an AP-1 gene signature. Mutation of the putative c-Jun acetylation site at lysine residue 273 reduced the transcriptional activation of c-Jun in melanoma cells and conveyed resistance to BRAF inhibition through increased RTK expression and enhanced MAPK pathway activity. In vivo xenograft studies confirmed the key role of HDAC8 in therapeutic adaptation, with both non-selective and HDAC8-specific inhibitors enhancing the durability of response to BRAF inhibitor therapy. Our studies demonstrate that HDAC8-specific inhibitors could represent an excellent strategy to limit the adaptation of melanoma cells to multiple stresses and therapeutic interventions, including BRAF-MEK inhibitor combinations.
Project description:Melanoma cells are highly plastic and have the ability to switch to a dedifferentiated, invasive phenotype in response to multiple stimuli. Here, we show that exposure of melanoma cell lines and patient specimens to multiple stresses including BRAF-MEK inhibitor therapy, hypoxia and UV-irradiation leads to an increase in histone deacetylase 8 (HDAC8) expression/activity, and in turn, the adoption of a drug-resistant, invasive phenotype. Systems level analyses using mass spectrometry-based phosphoproteomics implicated HDAC8 in the regulation of MAPK and AP-1 signaling pathways. Introduction of HDAC8 into drug-naïve melanoma cells conveyed resistance both in vitro and in in vivo xenograft models. HDAC8-mediated BRAF inhibitor resistance was mediated via receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) activation leading to Ras/CRAF/MEK/ERK signaling. Although HDACs primarily function at the histone level, they also regulate signaling through the modulation of non-histone substrates. In line with this, HDAC8 introduction decreased the acetylation of c-Jun, increasing its transcriptional activity and enriching for an AP-1 gene signature. Mutation of the putative c-Jun acetylation site at lysine residue 273 reduced the transcriptional activation of c-Jun in melanoma cells and conveyed resistance to BRAF inhibition through increased RTK expression and enhanced MAPK pathway activity. In vivo xenograft studies confirmed the key role of HDAC8 in therapeutic adaptation, with both non-selective and HDAC8-specific inhibitors enhancing the durability of response to BRAF inhibitor therapy. Our studies demonstrate that HDAC8-specific inhibitors could represent an excellent strategy to limit the adaptation of melanoma cells to multiple stresses and therapeutic interventions, including BRAF-MEK inhibitor combinations.
Project description:To investigate mechanisms of resistance to BRAF inhibitor therapy in melanoma, BRAF mutant cell lines have been chronically exposed to BRAFi to create phenotypes with acquired drug resistance. Expression proteomics is used to examine the differences between naive and drug-resistant cells.
Project description:To investigate mechanisms of resistance to BRAF inhibitor therapy in melanoma, BRAF mutant cell lines have been chronically exposed to BRAFi to create phenotypes with acquired drug resistance. Activity-based protein profiling with desthiobiotinylating ATP probes (ActivX, Thermo) is used to examine the differences between naive and drug-resistant cells.
Project description:BRAF V600 mutation influences cellular signaling pathways for melanoma development. Here, we show that mutated BRAF plays an essential role in the adaptive stress response following activation of general control non-derepressible 2 (GCN2) kinase. In parallel with GCN2, BRAF ensures ATF4 induction by utilizing mTOR and eIF4B as downstream regulators during nutrient stress and BRAF-targeted, therapeutic stress. Upon pharmacological BRAF inhibition, this signaling pathway exhibits temporal resistance, compared with the MEK-ERK pathway, thereby enabling transient induction of ATF4 under GCN2 activation. Notably, the prevention of GCN2 activation, using a chemical inhibitor that we identified, produces synergistic cell killing with BRAF inhibition. Thus, oncogenic BRAF can collaborate with the GCN2–ATF4 pathway, promoting stress adaptation for cell survival.
Project description:Fifty percent of cutaneous melanomas are driven by activated BRAFV600E, but tumors treated with RAF inhibitors, even when they respond dramatically, rapidly adapt and develop resistance. Thus, there is a pressing need to identify the major mechanisms of intrinsic and adaptive resistance and develop drug combinations that target these resistance mechanisms. In a combinatorial drug screen on a panel of 12 treatment-naïve BRAFV600E mutant melanoma cell lines of varying levels of resistance to MAPK pathway inhibition we identified the combination PLX4720, a targeted inhibitor of mutated BRaf, and lapatinib, an inhibitor of the ERBB family of receptor tyrosine kinases, as synergistically cytotoxic in the subset of cell lines that displayed the most resistance to PLX4720. To identify potential mechanisms of resistance to PLX4720 treatment and synergy with lapatinib treatment we performed a multi-platform functional genomics analysis to profile the genome as well as the transcriptional and proteomic responses of these cell lines to treatment with PLX4720. We found modest levels of resistance correlated with the zygosity of the BRAF V600E allele and RTK mutational status. Layered over base-line resistance was substantial upregulation of many ERBB pathway genes in response to BRaf inhibition, thus generating the vulnerability to combination with lapatinib. The transcriptional responses of ERBB pathway genes are associated with a number of transcription factors, including ETS2 and its associated cofactors that represent a convergent regulatory mechanism conferring synergistic drug susceptibility in the context of diverse mutational landscapes. 12 BRAF mutant melanomas and 4 melanomas with WT BRAF were exposed plx4720 treatment to evaluate their responses after 8 hours of treatment. 5 of the 12 BRAF mutant melanomas responses were also evaluated in response to the treatment of lapatinib alone, masitinib alone, the combination of lapatinib with plx4720, or the combination of masitinib with plx4720. All samples were run in at least triplicate.
Project description:aCGH of human melanoma cell lines comparing parental (drug sensitve) vs isogenic drug resistant-derived subline Two condition experiment: two BRAF-V600E mutant cell lines (drug sensitive - parental baseline) vs two derived sublines after chronic exposure to the MEK inhibitor trametinib (drug resistant) are compared
Project description:The treatment of melanoma by targeted inhibition of the mutated kinase BRAF with small molecules only temporarily suppresses metastatic disease. In the face of chemical inhibition tumor plasticity, both innate and adaptive, promotes survival through the biochemical and genetic reconfiguration of cellular pathways that can engage proliferative and migratory systems. To investigate this process high-resolution mass spectrometry was used to characterize the phosphoproteome of this transition in vitro. A simple and accurate, label-free quantitative method was used to localize and quantitate thousands of phosphorylation events. We also correlated changes in the phosphoproteome with the proteome to more accurately determine changes in the activity of regulatory kinases determined by kinase landscape profiling. The abundance of phosphopeptides with sites that function in cytoskeletal regulation, GTP/GDP exchange, Protein Kinase C, IGF signaling and melanosome maturation were highly divergent after transition to a drug resistant phenotype.
Project description:Colon cancer cell lines with partial sensitivity to the BRAF inhibitor PLX4720 were grown in increasing concentration of the drug to develop acquired resistance. Gene expression was performed for comparison of the resistant clones to the parental lines. Colon cancer cell lines with partial sensitivity to the BRAF inhibitor PLX4720 were grown in increasing concentration of the drug to develop acquired resistance. Gene expression was performed for comparison of the resistant clones to the parental lines.