Active PI3K pathway causes an invasive phenotype which can be reversed or promoted by blocking the pathway at divergent nodes.

The PTEN/PI3K pathway is commonly mutated in cancer and therefore represents an attractive target for therapeutic intervention. To investigate the primary phenotypes mediated by increased pathway signaling in a clean, patient-relevant context, an activating PIK3CA mutation (H1047R) was knocked-in to an endogenous allele of the MCF10A non-tumorigenic human breast epithelial cell line. Introduction of an endogenously mutated PIK3CA allele resulted in a marked epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and invasive phenotype, compared to isogenic wild-type cells. The invasive phenotype was linked to enhanced PIP(3) production via a S6K-IRS positive feedback mechanism. Moreover, potent and selective inhibitors of PI3K were highly effective in reversing this phenotype, which is optimally revealed in 3-dimensional cell culture. In contrast, inhibition of Akt or mTOR exacerbated the invasive phenotype. Our results suggest that invasion is a core phenotype mediated by increased PTEN/PI3K pathway activity and that therapeutic agents targeting different nodes of the PI3K pathway may have dramatic differences in their ability to reverse or promote cancer metastasis.

AT13148 is a novel, oral multi-AGC kinase inhibitor with potent pharmacodynamic and antitumor activity.

PURPOSE: Deregulated phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase pathway signaling through AGC kinases including AKT, p70S6 kinase, PKA, SGK and Rho kinase is a key driver of multiple cancers. The simultaneous inhibition of multiple AGC kinases may increase antitumor activity and minimize clinical resistance compared with a single pathway component. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: We investigated the detailed pharmacology and antitumor activity of the novel clinical drug candidate AT13148, an oral ATP-competitive multi-AGC kinase inhibitor. Gene expression microarray studies were undertaken to characterize the molecular mechanisms of action of AT13148. RESULTS: AT13148 caused substantial blockade of AKT, p70S6K, PKA, ROCK, and SGK substrate phosphorylation and induced apoptosis in a concentration and time-dependent manner in cancer cells with clinically relevant genetic defects in vitro and in vivo. Antitumor efficacy in HER2-positive, PIK3CA-mutant BT474 breast, PTEN-deficient PC3 human prostate cancer, and PTEN-deficient MES-SA uterine tumor xenografts was shown. We show for the first time that induction of AKT phosphorylation at serine 473 by AT13148, as reported for other ATP-competitive inhibitors of AKT, is not a therapeutically relevant reactivation step. Gene expression studies showed that AT13148 has a predominant effect on apoptosis genes, whereas the selective AKT inhibitor CCT128930 modulates cell-cycle genes. Induction of upstream regulators including IRS2 and PIK3IP1 as a result of compensatory feedback loops was observed. CONCLUSIONS: The clinical candidate AT13148 is a novel oral multi-AGC kinase inhibitor with potent pharmacodynamic and antitumor activity, which shows a distinct mechanism of action from other AKT inhibitors. AT13148 will now be assessed in a first-in-human phase I trial.

AT7867 is a potent and oral inhibitor of AKT and p70 S6 kinase that induces pharmacodynamic changes and inhibits human tumor xenograft growth.

The serine/threonine kinase AKT plays a pivotal role in signal transduction events involved in malignant transformation and chemoresistance and is an attractive target for the development of cancer therapeutics. Fragment-based lead discovery, combined with structure-based drug design, has recently identified AT7867 as a novel and potent inhibitor of both AKT and the downstream kinase p70 S6 kinase (p70S6K) and also of protein kinase A. This ATP-competitive small molecule potently inhibits both AKT and p70S6K activity at the cellular level, as measured by inhibition of GSK3beta and S6 ribosomal protein phosphorylation, and also causes growth inhibition in a range of human cancer cell lines as a single agent. Induction of apoptosis was detected by multiple methods in tumor cells following AT7867 treatment. Administration of AT7867 (90 mg/kg p.o. or 20 mg/kg i.p.) to athymic mice implanted with the PTEN-deficient U87MG human glioblastoma xenograft model caused inhibition of phosphorylation of downstream substrates of both AKT and p70S6K and induction of apoptosis, confirming the observations made in vitro. These doses of AT7867 also resulted in inhibition of human tumor growth in PTEN-deficient xenograft models. These data suggest that the novel strategy of AKT and p70S6K blockade may have therapeutic value and supports further evaluation of AT7867 as a single-agent anticancer strategy.