DRD1 signaling modulates TrkB turnover and BDNF sensitivity in direct pathway striatal medium spiny neurons.

Disturbed motor control is a hallmark of Parkinson's disease (PD). Cortico-striatal synapses play a central role in motor learning and adaption, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) from cortico-striatal afferents modulates their plasticity via TrkB in striatal medium spiny projection neurons (SPNs). We studied the role of dopamine in modulating the sensitivity of direct pathway SPNs (dSPNs) to BDNF in cultures of fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS)-enriched D1-expressing SPNs and 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)-treated rats. DRD1 activation causes enhanced TrkB translocation to the cell surface and increased sensitivity for BDNF. In contrast, dopamine depletion in cultured dSPN neurons, 6-OHDA-treated rats, and postmortem brain of patients with PD reduces BDNF responsiveness and causes formation of intracellular TrkB clusters. These clusters associate with sortilin related VPS10 domain containing receptor 2 (SORCS-2) in multivesicular-like structures, which apparently protects them from lysosomal degradation. Thus, impaired TrkB processing might contribute to disturbed motor function in PD.

Antitumor Efficacy of the Novel KIT Inhibitor IDRX-42 (Formerly M4205) in Patient- and Cell Line-Derived Xenograft Models of Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor (GIST).

PURPOSE: The majority of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) are driven by constitutively activated KIT/PDGFRA kinases and are susceptible to treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors. During treatment, most of these tumors will develop secondary mutations in KIT or PDGFRA inducing drug resistance, so there is an unmet need for novel therapies. We tested the efficacy of IDRX-42, a novel selective KIT inhibitor with high activity toward the most relevant KIT mutations, in 4 GIST xenograft models. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: NMRI nu/nu mice were transplanted with patient-derived GIST xenograft models UZLX-GIST9 (KIT:p.P577del;W557LfsX5;D820G), UZLX-GIST2B (KIT:p.A502_Y503dup), UZLX-GIST25 (KIT:p.K642E), and the cell line-derived model GIST882 (KIT:p.K642E). Mice were treated daily with vehicle (control), imatinib (100 mg/kg), sunitinib (20 mg/kg), avapritinib (5 mg/kg), or IDRX-42 (10 mg/kg, 25 mg/kg). Efficacy was assessed by tumor volume evolution, histopathology, grading of histologic response, and IHC. The Kruskal-Wallis and Wilcoxon matched-pairs tests were used for statistical analysis, with P < 0.05 considered as significant. RESULTS: IDRX-42 (25 mg/kg) caused tumor volume shrinkage in UZLX-GIST25, GIST882, and UZLX-GIST2B, with a relative decrease to 45.6%, 57.3%, and 35.1% on the last day as compared with baseline, and tumor growth delay (160.9%) compared with control in UZLX-GIST9. Compared with controls, IDRX-42 (25 mg/kg) induced a significant decrease in mitosis. In UZLX-GIST25 and GIST882 grade 2-4 histologic response with myxoid degeneration was observed in all IDRX-42 (25 mg/kg)-treated tumors. CONCLUSIONS: IDRX-42 showed significant antitumor activity in patient- and cell line-derived GIST xenograft models. The novel kinase inhibitor induced volumetric responses, decreased mitotic activity, and had antiproliferative effects. In models with KIT exon 13 mutation IDRX-42 induced characteristic myxoid degeneration.