Project description:Ovarian cancer is the deadliest gynecological malignancy, owing to its late-stage diagnosis and high rates of recurrence and resistance following standard-of-care treatment, highlighting the need for novel treatment approaches. Through an unbiased drug screen, we identified the kinase inhibitor, lestaurtinib, as a potent antineoplastic agent for chemotherapy- and PARP-inhibitor (PARPi)-sensitive and -resistant ovarian cancer cells and patient derived xenografts (PDXs). RNA-sequencing revealed that lestaurtinib potently suppressed JAK/STAT signaling and lestaurtinib efficacy was shown to be directly related to JAK/STAT pathway activity in cell lines and PDX models. Most ovarian cancer cells exhibited constitutive JAK/STAT pathway activation and genetic loss of STAT1 and STAT3 resulted in growth inhibition. Lestaurtinib also displayed synergy when combined with cisplatin and olaparib, including in a model of PARPi resistance. In contrast, the most well-known JAK/STAT inhibitor, ruxolitinib, lacked antineoplastic activity against all ovarian cancer cell lines and PDX models tested. This divergent behavior was reflected in the ability of lestaurtinib to block both Y701/705 and S727 phosphorylation of STAT1 and STAT3, whereas ruxolitinib failed to block S727. Consistent with these findings, lestaurtinib additionally inhibited the serine/threonine kinases, JNK and ERK, leading to more complete suppression of STAT phosphorylation. Concordantly, combinatorial treatment with ruxolitinib and a JNK or ERK inhibitor resulted in synergistic antineoplastic effects at dose levels where the single agents were ineffective. Taken together, these findings indicate that lestaurtinib, and other treatments that converge on JAK/STAT signaling, are worthy of further pre-clinical and clinical exploration for the treatment of highly aggressive and advanced forms of ovarian cancer.
Project description:KFTX paclitaxel (PTX)-resistant ovarian cancer cells, KFTXlow PTX-resistant ovarian cancer cells and KFlow PTX-sensitive ovarian cancer cells expression profilies
Project description:Euchromatin methyltransferase1/2 (EHMT1/2) have been correlated with tumorigenesis and therapy resistance through unknown mechanisms of action. Using a combination of experimental and bioinformatic analyses in several PARP inhibitor resistant ovarian cancer models, we demonstrate that combinatory EHMT and PARP inhibition is effective in treating PARP inhibitor resistant ovarian cancers. Our in vitro studies show that combinatory therapy reactivates transposable elements and increased immunostimulatory dsRNA formation and several immune signaling pathways. Our in vivo studies show that single EHMT and combinatory EHMT and PARP inhibition reduces tumor burden and that this reduction is dependent on CD8 T cells. Together, our results show a direct mechanism by which transposable elements are regulated and how an epigenetic therapy can be used as a fine tune agent to treat cancers with specific genetics.
Project description:We have previously established an in vitro model of PARPi-resistant ovarian cancer by long-term exposure of UWB1.289 ovarian cancer cells (and their isogenic derivatives UWB1.289+BRCA1) to incrementally ascending olaparib concentrations. After finalizing this model, we performed RNA-seq, in order to identify differentially expressed transcript in the PARPi-resistant cells, with a focus on genes related to DNA-repair, multi-drug resistance and EMT. As a result, we show that the phenotype of PARPi resistance is associated with EMT-like traits and up-regulation of selective multi-drug related transcripts.
Project description:The goal of this study was to determine genes with altered expression after selection of ovarian cancer cells for survival in increasing concentrations of cisplatin. A series of progressively cispatin resistant derivatives of A2780 ovarian cancer cell lines was hybridized to spotted cDNA microarrays using two color technology using the parental A2780 cells as a reference. Duplicate hybridizations were carried out for each resistant derivative.
Project description:Variable responses to platinum chemotherapy and the development of resistant disease drive high mortality in high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC). Here, we developed the organoid drug resistance assay (ODR-test) to quantify the patient-specific efficacy of platinum treatment and generated post-platinum lines as an in vitro model of platinum-resistant ovarian cancer (PROC). We observed a gradual increase in resistance, mirroring the clinical outcomes of patients. Transcriptional and proteomic analyses of post-platinum phenotypes revealed changes in cell adhesion and differentiation as adaptive mechanisms irrespective of the basal resistance level. We found that Keratin 17 (KRT17) is a mediator of developing resistance and validated its function by CRISPR/Cas9 and overexpression. Additionally, we determined KRT17 (K-score) as a significant negative prognostic factor for survival based on analysis of a tumor microarray (N=377) of patients with advanced HGSOC. In organoids, increased KRT17 levels enhanced sensitivity to PI3K/Akt inhibitors Alpelisib and Afuresertib, highlighting the potential of KRT17 as a stratification biomarker for targeted therapies. These findings quantify patient-specific platinum response, identify PROC via KRT17 as a biomarker, and propose alternative targeted therapy for this challenging group of patients.
Project description:Platinum resistance is a major drawback in the treatment of ovarian cancer. Evidence suggests that microRNAs are key players in the initiation, progression, and drug resistance of cancer cells. However, the precise miRNAs dysregulated and contributing to platinum resistance in ovarian cancer cells have not been fully elucidated. Here, we conducted a miRNA expression profiling of cisplatin-sensitive (A2780) and cisplatin-resistant (CP20 and CIS) ovarian cancer cells to identify potential miRNAs involved in platinum resistance.
Project description:Oncolytic vaccinia virus (OVV) has demonstrated appropriate safety profiles for clinical development. Although OVV was designed to kill cancer cells efficiently, sensitivity to OVV varies in individual cancers. Here, we found that OVV was much more efficient in KFTX paclitaxel (PTX)-resistant ovarian cancer cells, compared to that in KFlow PTX-sensitive cells. Microarray analysis showed that urothelial carcinoma-associated 1 (UCA1) upregulation contributed to both enhanced PTX resistance and OVV spread.