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Myint KZ, Sueca-Comes M, Collier P, Balasubramanian B, Venkatraman S, Gordan J, Zaitoun AM, Mukherjee A, Arora A, Larbcharoensub N, Suriyonplengsaeng C, Wongprasert K, Janvilisri T, Gomez D, Grabowska AM, Tohtong R, Bates DO, Yacqub-Usman K. Preclinical evidence for anaplastic lymphoma kinase inhibitors as novel therapeutic treatments for cholangiocarcinoma. Front Oncol 2023; 13:1184900. [PMID: 38144528 PMCID: PMC10748508 DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1184900] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2023] [Accepted: 11/06/2023] [Indexed: 12/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Bile duct cancer (cholangiocarcinoma, CCA) has a poor prognosis for patients, and despite recent advances in targeted therapies for other cancer types, it is still treated with standard chemotherapy. Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) has been shown to be a primary driver of disease progression in lung cancer, and ALK inhibitors are effective therapeutics in aberrant ALK-expressing tumors. Aberrant ALK expression has been documented in CCA, but the use of ALK inhibitors has not been investigated. Using CCA cell lines and close-to-patient primary cholangiocarcinoma cells, we investigated the potential for ALK inhibitors in CCA. Methods ALK, cMET, and ROS1 expression was determined in CCA patient tissue by immunohistochemistry and digital droplet polymerase chain reaction, and that in cell lines was determined by immunoblot and immunofluorescence. The effect on cell viability and mechanism of action of ALK, cMet, and ROS1 inhibitors was determined in CCA cell lines. To determine whether ceritinib could affect primary CCA cells, tissue was taken from four patients with biliary tract cancer, without ALK rearrangement, mutation, or overexpression, and grown in three-dimensional tumor growth assays in the presence or absence of humanized mesenchymal cells. Results ALK and cMet but not ROS were both upregulated in CCA tissues and cell lines. Cell survival was inhibited by crizotinib, a c-met/ALK/ROS inhibitor. To determine the mechanism of this effect, we tested c-Met-specific and ALK/ROS-specific inhibitors, capmatinib and ceritinib, respectively. Whereas capmatinib did not affect cell survival, ceritinib dose-dependently inhibited survival in all cell lines, with IC50 ranging from 1 to 9 µM and co-treatments with gemcitabine and cisplatin further sensitized cells, with IC50 ranging from IC50 0.60 to 2.32 µM. Ceritinib did not inhibit cMet phosphorylation but did inhibit ALK phosphorylation. ALK was not mutated in any of these cell lines. Only ceritinib inhibited 3D growth of all four patient samples below mean peak serum concentration, in the presence and absence of mesenchymal cells, whereas crizotinib and capmatinib failed to do this. Ceritinib appeared to exert its effect more through autophagy than apoptosis. Discussion These results indicate that ceritinib or other ALK/ROS inhibitors could be therapeutically useful in cholangiocarcinoma even in the absence of aberrant ALK/ROS1 expression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kyaw Zwar Myint
- Graduate Program in Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Mireia Sueca-Comes
- Division of Cancer and Stem Cells, Biodiscovery Institute, School of Medicine, Biodiscovery Institute, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
| | - Pamela Collier
- Division of Cancer and Stem Cells, Biodiscovery Institute, School of Medicine, Biodiscovery Institute, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
| | - Brinda Balasubramanian
- Graduate Program in Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Simran Venkatraman
- Graduate Program in Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - John Gordan
- Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States
| | - Abed M. Zaitoun
- Department of Pathology, Nottingham Universities National Health Service (NHS) Hospital Trust, Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham, United Kingdom
| | - Abhik Mukherjee
- Division of Cancer and Stem Cells, Biodiscovery Institute, School of Medicine, Biodiscovery Institute, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
- Department of Pathology, Nottingham Universities National Health Service (NHS) Hospital Trust, Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham, United Kingdom
| | - Arvind Arora
- Division of Cancer and Stem Cells, Biodiscovery Institute, School of Medicine, Biodiscovery Institute, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
- Department of Medical Oncology, Nottingham Universities National Health Service (NHS) Hospital Trust, Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham, United Kingdom
| | - Noppadol Larbcharoensub
- Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
| | | | - Kanokpan Wongprasert
- Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Tavan Janvilisri
- Graduate Program in Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
- Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - Dhanny Gomez
- Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, and National Institute of Health Care Research (NIHR) Nottingham Digestive Disease Biomedical Research Unit, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
| | - Anna M. Grabowska
- Division of Cancer and Stem Cells, Biodiscovery Institute, School of Medicine, Biodiscovery Institute, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
| | - Rutaiwan Tohtong
- Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
| | - David O. Bates
- Division of Cancer and Stem Cells, Biodiscovery Institute, School of Medicine, Biodiscovery Institute, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
| | - Kiren Yacqub-Usman
- Division of Cancer and Stem Cells, Biodiscovery Institute, School of Medicine, Biodiscovery Institute, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
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Sueca-Comes M, Rusu EC, Grabowska AM, Bates DO. Looking Under the Lamppost: The Search for New Cancer Targets in the Human Kinome. Pharmacol Rev 2022; 74:1136-1145. [PMID: 36180110 DOI: 10.1124/pharmrev.121.000410] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2021] [Revised: 02/02/2022] [Accepted: 02/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The number of cancer drugs is increasing as new chemical entities are developed to target molecules, often protein kinases, driving cancer progression. In 2009, Fedorov et al. identified that of the protein kinases in the human kinome, most of the focus has been on a small subset. They highlighted that many poorly investigated protein kinases were cancer drivers, but there was no relationship between publications and involvement in cancer development or progression. Since 2009, there has been a doubling in the number of publications, patents, and drugs targeting the kinome. To determine whether this was an expansion in knowledge of well-studied targets-searching in the light under the lamppost-or an explosion of investigations into previously poorly investigated targets, we searched the literature for publications on each kinase, updating Federov et al.'s assessment of the druggable kinome. The proportion of papers focusing on the 50 most-studied kinases had not changed, and the makeup of those 50 had barely changed. The majority of new drugs (80%) were against the same group of 50 kinases identified as targets 10 years ago, and the proportion of studies investigating previously poorly investigated kinases (<1%) was unchanged. With three exceptions [p38 mitogenactivated protein kinase (p38a), AMP-activated protein kinase catalytic α-subunit 1,2, and B-Raf proto-oncogene (BRAF) serine/threonine kinase], >95% of publications addressing kinases still focused on a relatively small proportion (<50%) of the human kinome independently of their involvement as cancer drivers. There is, therefore, still extensive scope for discovery of therapeutics targeting different protein kinases in cancer and still a bias toward well-characterized targets over the innovative searchlight into the unknown. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: This study presents evidence that drug discovery efforts in cancer are still to some extent focused on a narrow group of well-studied kinases 10 years after the identification of multiple novel cancer targets in the human kinome. This suggests that there is still room for researchers in academia, industry, and the not-for-profit sector to develop new and diverse therapies targeting kinases for cancer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mireia Sueca-Comes
- Division of Cancer and Stem Cells, Centre for Cancer Sciences, Biodiscovery Institute, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom (M.S.-C., A.M.G., D.O.B.); Institute of Integrative Systems Biology (I2Sysbio), University of Valencia and Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Valencia, Spain (E.C.R.); and SeqPlexing SL, Valencia, Spain (E.C.R.)
| | - Elena Cristina Rusu
- Division of Cancer and Stem Cells, Centre for Cancer Sciences, Biodiscovery Institute, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom (M.S.-C., A.M.G., D.O.B.); Institute of Integrative Systems Biology (I2Sysbio), University of Valencia and Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Valencia, Spain (E.C.R.); and SeqPlexing SL, Valencia, Spain (E.C.R.)
| | - Anna M Grabowska
- Division of Cancer and Stem Cells, Centre for Cancer Sciences, Biodiscovery Institute, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom (M.S.-C., A.M.G., D.O.B.); Institute of Integrative Systems Biology (I2Sysbio), University of Valencia and Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Valencia, Spain (E.C.R.); and SeqPlexing SL, Valencia, Spain (E.C.R.)
| | - David O Bates
- Division of Cancer and Stem Cells, Centre for Cancer Sciences, Biodiscovery Institute, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom (M.S.-C., A.M.G., D.O.B.); Institute of Integrative Systems Biology (I2Sysbio), University of Valencia and Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Valencia, Spain (E.C.R.); and SeqPlexing SL, Valencia, Spain (E.C.R.)
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