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DeRyckere D, Huelse JM, Earp HS, Graham DK. TAM family kinases as therapeutic targets at the interface of cancer and immunity. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 2023; 20:755-779. [PMID: 37667010 DOI: 10.1038/s41571-023-00813-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/07/2023] [Indexed: 09/06/2023]
Abstract
Novel treatment approaches are needed to overcome innate and acquired mechanisms of resistance to current anticancer therapies in cancer cells and the tumour immune microenvironment. The TAM (TYRO3, AXL and MERTK) family receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) are potential therapeutic targets in a wide range of cancers. In cancer cells, TAM RTKs activate signalling pathways that promote cell survival, metastasis and resistance to a variety of chemotherapeutic agents and targeted therapies. TAM RTKs also function in innate immune cells, contributing to various mechanisms that suppress antitumour immunity and promote resistance to immune-checkpoint inhibitors. Therefore, TAM antagonists provide an unprecedented opportunity for both direct and immune-mediated therapeutic activity provided by inhibition of a single target, and are likely to be particularly effective when used in combination with other cancer therapies. To exploit this potential, a variety of agents have been designed to selectively target TAM RTKs, many of which have now entered clinical testing. This Review provides an essential guide to the TAM RTKs for clinicians, including an overview of the rationale for therapeutic targeting of TAM RTKs in cancer cells and the tumour immune microenvironment, a description of the current preclinical and clinical experience with TAM inhibitors, and a perspective on strategies for continued development of TAM-targeted agents for oncology applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Deborah DeRyckere
- Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA
- Department of Paediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Justus M Huelse
- Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA
- Department of Paediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - H Shelton Earp
- Department of Medicine, UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
- Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Douglas K Graham
- Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA.
- Department of Paediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA.
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Looi CK, Gan LL, Sim W, Hii LW, Chung FFL, Leong CO, Lim WM, Mai CW. Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors Restore Cancer Cell Sensitivity towards T Lymphocytes Mediated Cytotoxicity in Pancreatic Cancer. Cancers (Basel) 2022; 14:cancers14153709. [PMID: 35954379 PMCID: PMC9367398 DOI: 10.3390/cancers14153709] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2022] [Revised: 07/27/2022] [Accepted: 07/28/2022] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Despite medical advancements, the prognosis of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has not improved significantly over the past 50 years. By utilising the large-scale genomic datasets available from the Australia Pancreatic Cancer Project (PACA-AU) and The Cancer Genomic Atlas Project (TCGA-PAAD), we studied the immunophenotype of PDAC in silico and identified that tumours with high cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) killing activity were associated with favourable clinical outcomes. Using the STRING protein–protein interaction network analysis, the identified differentially expressed genes with low CTL killing activity were associated with TWIST/IL-6R, HDAC5, and EOMES signalling. Following Connectivity Map analysis, we identified 44 small molecules that could restore CTL sensitivity in the PDAC cells. Further high-throughput chemical library screening identified 133 inhibitors that effectively target both parental and CTL-resistant PDAC cells in vitro. Since CTL-resistant PDAC had a higher expression of histone proteins and its acetylated proteins compared to its parental cells, we further investigated the impact of histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) on CTL-mediated cytotoxicity in PDAC cells in vitro, namely SW1990 and BxPC3. Further analyses revealed that givinostat and dacinostat were the two most potent HDAC inhibitors that restored CTL sensitivity in SW1990 and BxPC3 CTL-resistant cells. Through our in silico and in vitro studies, we demonstrate the novel role of HDAC inhibition in restoring CTL resistance and that combinations of HDACi with CTL may represent a promising therapeutic strategy, warranting its further detailed molecular mechanistic studies and animal studies before embarking on the clinical evaluation of these novel combined PDAC treatments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chin-King Looi
- School of Postgraduate Studies, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur 57000, Malaysia; (C.-K.L.); (L.-L.G.)
| | - Li-Lian Gan
- School of Postgraduate Studies, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur 57000, Malaysia; (C.-K.L.); (L.-L.G.)
- Clinical Research Centre, Hospital Tuanku Ja’afar Seremban, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Seremban 70300, Malaysia
| | - Wynne Sim
- School of Medicine, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur 57000, Malaysia;
| | - Ling-Wei Hii
- Center for Cancer and Stem Cell Research, Development and Innovation (IRDI), Institute for Research, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur 57000, Malaysia; (L.-W.H.); (C.-O.L.); (W.-M.L.)
- School of Pharmacy, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur 57000, Malaysia
| | - Felicia Fei-Lei Chung
- Department of Medical Sciences, School of Medical and Life Sciences, Sunway University, Subang Jaya 47500, Malaysia;
| | - Chee-Onn Leong
- Center for Cancer and Stem Cell Research, Development and Innovation (IRDI), Institute for Research, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur 57000, Malaysia; (L.-W.H.); (C.-O.L.); (W.-M.L.)
- School of Pharmacy, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur 57000, Malaysia
- AGTC Genomics, Kuala Lumpur 57000, Malaysia
| | - Wei-Meng Lim
- Center for Cancer and Stem Cell Research, Development and Innovation (IRDI), Institute for Research, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur 57000, Malaysia; (L.-W.H.); (C.-O.L.); (W.-M.L.)
- School of Pharmacy, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur 57000, Malaysia
- School of Pharmacy, Monash University Malaysia, Subang Jaya 47500, Malaysia
| | - Chun-Wai Mai
- Center for Cancer and Stem Cell Research, Development and Innovation (IRDI), Institute for Research, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur 57000, Malaysia; (L.-W.H.); (C.-O.L.); (W.-M.L.)
- School of Pharmacy, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur 57000, Malaysia
- State Key Laboratory of Oncogenes and Related Genes, Renji-Med X Clinical Stem Cell Research Center, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Pudong New District, Shanghai 200127, China
- Correspondence: or
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Analyzing Prognostic Hub Genes in the Microenvironment of Cutaneous Melanoma by Computer Integrated Bioinformatics. COMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND NEUROSCIENCE 2022; 2022:4493347. [PMID: 35300397 PMCID: PMC8923759 DOI: 10.1155/2022/4493347] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/24/2021] [Accepted: 01/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Cutaneous melanoma (CM) is attracting increasing attention due to high mortality. In response to this, we synthetically analyze the CM dataset from the TCGA database and explore microenvironment-related genes that effectively predict patient prognosis. Immune/stromal scores of cases are calculated using the ESTIMATE algorithm and are significantly associated with overall patient survival. Then, differentially expressed genes are identified by comparing the immune score and stromal score, also prognostic genes are subsequently screened. Functional analysis shows that these genes are enriched in different activities of immune system. Moreover, 19 prognosis-related hub genes are extracted from the protein-protein interaction network, of which four unreported genes (IL7R, FLT3, C1QC, and HLA-DRB5) are chosen for validation. A significant negative relationship is found between the expression levels of the 4 genes and pathological stages, notably T grade. Furthermore, the K-M plots and TIMER results show that these genes have favorable value for CM prognosis. In conclusion, these results give a novel insight into CM and identify IL7R, FLT3, C1QC, and HLA-DRB5 as crucial roles for the diagnosis and treatment of CM.
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