Project description:Emerging research suggests that multiple tumor compartments can influence treatment responsiveness and relapse, yet the search for therapeutic resistance mechanisms remains largely focused on acquired genomic alterations in cancer cells. Here, we show how treatment-induced changes occur in multiple tumor compartments during tumor relapse and can reduce benefit of follow-on therapies. By utilizing serial biopsies, next generation sequencing and single cell transcriptomics, we tracked the evolution of multiple cellular compartments within individual lesions during first-line treatment response, relapse and second-line therapeutic interventions in an autochthonous model of melanoma. We discovered that while treatment-relapsed tumors remained genetically stable, they converged on a shared resistance phenotype characterized by dramatic changes in tumor cell differentiation state, immune infiltration and extracellular matrix (ECM) composition. Similar alterations in tumor cell differentiation were also observed in more than half of our treatment-relapsed patient tumors. Tumor cell state changes were coincident with ECM remodeling and increased tumor stiffness, which alone was sufficient to alter tumor cell fate and reduce treatment responses in melanoma cell lines in vitro. Despite the absence of acquired mutations in the targeted pathway, resistant tumors showed significantly decreased responsiveness to second-line therapy intervention within the same pathway. The ability to preclinically model relapse and refractory settings - while capturing dynamics within and crosstalk between all relevant tumor compartments - provides a unique opportunity to better design and sequence appropriate clinical interventions. The "SAMPLE_ID" sample characteristic is a sample identifier internal to Genentech. The ID of this project in Genentech's ExpressionPlot database is NGS2034.
Project description:Emerging research suggests that multiple tumor compartments can influence treatment responsiveness and relapse, yet the search for therapeutic resistance mechanisms remains largely focused on acquired genomic alterations in cancer cells. Here, we show how treatment-induced changes occur in multiple tumor compartments during tumor relapse and can reduce benefit of follow-on therapies. By utilizing serial biopsies, next generation sequencing and single cell transcriptomics, we tracked the evolution of multiple cellular compartments within individual lesions during first-line treatment response, relapse and second-line therapeutic interventions in an autochthonous model of melanoma. We discovered that while treatment-relapsed tumors remained genetically stable, they converged on a shared resistance phenotype characterized by dramatic changes in tumor cell differentiation state, immune infiltration and extracellular matrix (ECM) composition. Similar alterations in tumor cell differentiation were also observed in more than half of our treatment-relapsed patient tumors. Tumor cell state changes were coincident with ECM remodeling and increased tumor stiffness, which alone was sufficient to alter tumor cell fate and reduce treatment responses in melanoma cell lines in vitro. Despite the absence of acquired mutations in the targeted pathway, resistant tumors showed significantly decreased responsiveness to second-line therapy intervention within the same pathway. The ability to preclinically model relapse and refractory settings - while capturing dynamics within and crosstalk between all relevant tumor compartments - provides a unique opportunity to better design and sequence appropriate clinical interventions.
Project description:Melanoma is a rare but deadly form of skin cancer, which is often treated with BRAF inhibitors such as Vemurafenib (referred to as PLX4032). Whilst Vemurafenib prolongs the survival of patients, BRAF inhibitor resistance inevitably occurs in most cases. Previous studies demonstrated that metabolic rewiring occurs in BRAF inhibitor resistance and causes dependence on glutamine. To investigate whether this vulnerability could be exploited with clinically relevant drugs, we used the BRAF inhibitor, Vemurafenib, and the glutaminase imhibitor, CB839 to treat A375-derived melanoma xenografted tumors. We showed that whilst CB839 did not significantly affect the growth of A375-derived tumors compared to those given a vehicle, the addition of CB839 to Vemurafenib treatment had a significant anti-tumor effect. Tumors were taken at the endpoint (Max tumor length 15mm) from the 6 mice in each treatment group and cut into fragments and stored in RNAlater for RNAseq analysis. RNA extraction was performed on 1-3 fragments per tumor to make up 200-300mg of tissue.
Project description:To explore the characteristics of senescent melanoma cells induced by vemurafenib or cisplatin, melanoma A375 cells were treated with vemurafenib and cisplatin, respectively. The senescent phenotypes were verified by β-gal staining, EdU assay, cell morphology and the senescence-related pathways. RNA-seq was performed to explore the differentially expressed genes in the senescent cells induced by vemurafenib or cisplatin.
Project description:CGH profiling of M249 melanoma cell line treated with step-wise increasing Vemurafenib and Selumetinib to develop resistance (VSR). The resistance mechanims was through BRAF amplification in double minute (DM) format. The control cell line is untreated M249.
Project description:The BRAFV600E mutant melanoma cell line M14 responds to the BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib, however, the differences in response between individual cells are underlying resistance. To highlight the underlying mechanisms, we performed treatment of M14 cells with vemurafenib, followed by Drop-seq. We were able to clearly distinguish cells that were treated with the drug from untreated cells, and we discovered different cell populations within the treated cells, likely reflecting heterogeneity of drug resistant cells. We were able to identify specific biomarkers, as preferentially expressed genes, for each cell population. The results of our study will address preexisting and acquired drug resistance that limits clinical usefulness of targeted strategies.
Project description:Vemurafenib is a BRAF inhibitor with specificity for the most common BRAF mutant encountered in melanomas (BRAFV600E). Vemurafenib suppresses the proliferation of BRAF mutant human melanoma cells by suppressing downstream activation of the MEK/ERK mitogen activated protein kinases. We used microarrays to examine the transcriptional response of a vemurafenib-sensitive BRAFV600E human melanoma cell line (A375) to vemurafenib in order to further delineate the mechanisms by which BRAFV600E drives cell proliferation and energy metabolism in human melanoma.