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Parris JL, Barnoud T, Leu JIJ, Leung JC, Ma W, Kirven NA, Poli ANR, Kossenkov AV, Liu Q, Salvino JM, George DL, Weeraratna AT, Chen Q, Murphy ME. HSP70 inhibition blocks adaptive resistance and synergizes with MEK inhibition for the treatment of NRAS-mutant melanoma. Cancer Res Commun 2021; 1:17-29. [PMID: 35187538 PMCID: PMC8849551 DOI: 10.1158/2767-9764.crc-21-0033] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
NRAS-mutant melanoma is currently a challenge to treat. This is due to an absence of inhibitors directed against mutant NRAS, along with adaptive and acquired resistance of this tumor type to inhibitors in the MAPK pathway. Inhibitors to MEK (mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase) have shown some promise for NRAS-mutant melanoma. In this work we explored the use of MEK inhibitors for NRAS-mutant melanoma. At the same time we investigated the impact of the brain microenvironment, specifically astrocytes, on the response of a melanoma brain metastatic cell line to MEK inhibition. These parallel avenues led to the surprising finding that astrocytes enhance the sensitivity of melanoma tumors to MEK inhibitors (MEKi). We show that MEKi cause an upregulation of the transcription factor ID3, which confers resistance. This upregulation of ID3 is blocked by conditioned media from astrocytes. We show that silencing ID3 enhances the sensitivity of melanoma to MEK inhibitors, thus mimicking the effect of the brain microenvironment. Moreover, we report that ID3 is a client protein of the chaperone HSP70, and that HSP70 inhibition causes ID3 to misfold and accumulate in a detergent-insoluble fraction in cells. We show that HSP70 inhibitors synergize with MEK inhibitors against NRAS-mutant melanoma, and that this combination significantly enhances the survival of mice in two different models of NRAS-mutant melanoma. These studies highlight ID3 as a mediator of adaptive resistance, and support the combined use of MEK and HSP70 inhibitors for the therapy of NRAS-mutant melanoma. SIGNIFICANCE MEK inhibitors are currently used for NRAS-mutant melanoma, but have shown modest efficacy as single agents. This research shows a synergistic effect of combining HSP70 inhibitors with MEK inhibitors for the treatment of NRAS mutant melanoma.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua L.D. Parris
- Program(s) in Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis, The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.,Graduate Group in Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Thibaut Barnoud
- Program(s) in Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis, The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Julia I.-Ju Leu
- Department of Genetics, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Jessica C. Leung
- Program(s) in Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis, The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Weili Ma
- Immunology, Microenvironment and Metastasis, The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Nicole A. Kirven
- Program(s) in Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis, The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Adi Naryana Reddy Poli
- Program(s) in Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis, The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Andrew V. Kossenkov
- Gene Expression and Regulation, The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Qin Liu
- Program(s) in Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis, The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Joseph M. Salvino
- Program(s) in Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis, The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Donna L. George
- Department of Genetics, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Ashani T. Weeraratna
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21205
| | - Qing Chen
- Immunology, Microenvironment and Metastasis, The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Maureen E. Murphy
- Program(s) in Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis, The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.,Corresponding Author: Maureen Murphy, The Wistar Institute, 3601 Spruce Street, Room 356, Philadelphia, PA 19104. Phone: 215-495-6870; E-mail:
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