Chromosome instability drives phenotypic switching to metastasis.

Chromosome instability (CIN) is the most striking feature of human cancers. However, how CIN drives tumor progression to metastasis remains elusive. Here we studied the role of chromosome content changes in generating the phenotypic dynamics that are required for metastasis. We isolated epithelial and mesenchymal clones from human carcinoma cell lines and showed that the epithelial clones were able to generate mesenchymal variants, which had the potential to further produce epithelial revertants autonomously. The successive acquisition of invasive mesenchymal and then epithelial phenotypes recapitulated the steps in tumor progression to metastasis. Importantly, the generation of mesenchymal variants from clonal epithelial populations was associated with subtle changes in chromosome content, which altered the chromosome transcriptome and influenced the expression of genes encoding intercellular junction (IJ) proteins, whereas the loss of chromosome 10p, which harbors the ZEB1 gene, was frequently detected in epithelial variants generated from mesenchymal clones. Knocking down these IJ genes in epithelial cells induced a mesenchymal phenotype, whereas knocking down the ZEB1 gene in mesenchymal cells induced an epithelial phenotype, demonstrating a causal role of chromosome content changes in phenotypic determination. Thus, our studies suggest a paradigm of tumor metastasis: primary epithelial carcinoma cells that lose chromosomes harboring IJ genes acquire an invasive mesenchymal phenotype, and subsequent chromosome content changes such as loss of 10p in disseminated mesenchymal cells generate epithelial variants, which can be selected for to generate epithelial tumors during metastatic colonization.

Differential responses of MET activations to MET kinase inhibitor and neutralizing antibody.

BACKGROUND: Aberrant MET tyrosine kinase signaling is known to cause cancer initiation and progression. While MET inhibitors are in clinical trials against several cancer types, the clinical efficacies are controversial and the molecular mechanisms toward sensitivity remain elusive. METHODS: With the goal to investigate the molecular basis of MET amplification (METamp) and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) autocrine-driven tumors in response to MET tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) and neutralizing antibodies, we compared cancer cells harboring METamp (MKN45 and MHCCH97H) or HGF-autocrine (JHH5 and U87) for their sensitivity and downstream biological responses to a MET-TKI (INC280) and an anti-MET monoclonal antibody (MetMab) in vitro, and for tumor inhibition in vivo. RESULTS: We find that cancer cells driven by METamp are more sensitive to INC280 than are those driven by HGF-autocrine activation. In METamp cells, INC280 induced a DNA damage response with activation of repair through the p53BP1/ATM signaling pathway. Although MetMab failed to inhibit METamp cell proliferation and tumor growth, both INC280 and MetMab reduced HGF-autocrine tumor growth. In addition, we also show that HGF stimulation promoted human HUVEC cell tube formation via the Src pathway, which was inhibited by either INC280 or MetMab. These observations suggest that in HGF-autocrine tumors, the endothelial cells are the secondary targets MET inhibitors. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate that METamp and HGF-autocrine activation favor different molecular mechanisms. While combining MET TKIs and ATM inhibitors may enhance the efficacy for treating tumors harboring METamp, a combined inhibition of MET and angiogenesis pathways may improve the therapeutic efficacy against HGF-autocrine tumors.

MET4 expression predicts poor prognosis of gastric cancers with Helicobacter pylori infection.

The role of HGF/SF-MET signaling is important in cancer progression, but its relation with Helicobacter pylori-positive gastric cancers remains to be elucidated. In total, 201 patients with primary gastric carcinoma who underwent curative or debulking resection without preoperative chemotherapy were studied. MET4 and anti-HGF/SF mAbs were used for immunohistochemical analysis. Survival of gastric cancer patients was estimated by Kaplan-Meier method and compared with log-rank. Cox proportional hazards models were fit to determine the independent association of MET-staining status with outcome. The effect of live H. pylori bacteria on cell signaling and biological behaviors was evaluated using gastric cancer cell lines. MET4-positive gastric cancers showed poorer prognosis than MET4-negative cases (overall survival, P = 0.02; relapse-free survival, P = 0.06). Positive staining for MET4 was also a statistically significant factor to predict poor prognosis in H. pylori-positive cases (overall survival, P < 0.01; relapse-free survival, P = 0.01) but not in H. pylori-negative cases. Gastric cancers positively stained with both HGF/SF and MET4 showed a tendency of the worst prognosis. Stimulation of MET-positive gastric cancer cells with live H. pylori bacteria directly upregulated MET phosphorylation and activated MET downstream signals such as p44/42MAPK and Akt, conferring cell proliferation and anti-apoptotic activity. In conclusion, positive staining for MET4 was useful for predicting poor prognosis of gastric cancers with H. pylori infection. Helicobacter pylori stimulated MET-positive gastric cancers and activated downstream signaling, thereby promoting cancer proliferation and anti-apoptotic activity. These results support the importance of H. pylori elimination from gastric epithelial surface in clinical therapy.

Cartilage-specific deletion of Mig-6 results in osteoarthritis-like disorder with excessive articular chondrocyte proliferation.

A deficiency of mitogen-inducible gene-6 (Mig-6) in mice leads to the development of an early-onset, osteoarthritis (OA)-like disorder in multiple synovial joints, underlying its importance in maintaining joint homeostasis. Here we determined what joint tissues Mig-6 is expressed in and what role chondrocytes play in the Mig-6-deficient OA-like disorder. A Mig-6/lacZ reporter mouse strain expressing ß-galactosidase under the control of the Mig-6 gene promoter was generated to determine Mig-6 expression in joint tissues. By ß-galactosidase staining, we demonstrated that Mig-6 was uniquely expressed in the cells across the entire surface of the synovial joint cavity, including chondrocytes in the superficial zone of articular cartilage and in the meniscus, as well as synovial lining cells. By crossing Mig-6-floxed mice to Col2a1-Cre transgenic mice, to generate cartilage-specific deletion of Mig-6, we demonstrated that deficiency of Mig-6 in the chondrocytes results in a joint phenotype that only partially recapitulates the OA-like disorder of the Mig-6-deficient mice: Ubiquitous deletion of Mig-6 led to the OA-like disorder in multiple joints, whereas cartilage-specific deletion affected the knees but rarely other joints. Furthermore, chondrocytes with Mig-6 deficiency showed excessive proliferative activities along with enhanced EGF receptor signaling in the articular cartilage and in the abnormally formed osteophytes. Our findings provide insight into the crucial requirement for Mig-6 in maintaining joint homeostasis and in regulating chondrocyte activities in the synovial joints. Our data also suggest that other cell types are required for fully developing the Mig-6-deficient OA-like disorder.

Monovalent antibody design and mechanism of action of onartuzumab, a MET antagonist with anti-tumor activity as a therapeutic agent.

Binding of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) to the receptor tyrosine kinase MET is implicated in the malignant process of multiple cancers, making disruption of this interaction a promising therapeutic strategy. However, targeting MET with bivalent antibodies can mimic HGF agonism via receptor dimerization. To address this limitation, we have developed onartuzumab, an Escherichia coli-derived, humanized, and affinity-matured monovalent monoclonal antibody against MET, generated using the knob-into-hole technology that enables the antibody to engage the receptor in a one-to-one fashion. Onartuzumab potently inhibits HGF binding and receptor phosphorylation and signaling and has antibody-like pharmacokinetics and antitumor activity. Biochemical data and a crystal structure of a ternary complex of onartuzumab antigen-binding fragment bound to a MET extracellular domain fragment, consisting of the MET Sema domain fused to the adjacent Plexins, Semaphorins, Integrins domain (MET Sema-PSI), and the HGF ß-chain demonstrate that onartuzumab acts specifically by blocking HGF α-chain (but not ß-chain) binding to MET. These data suggest a likely binding site of the HGF α-chain on MET, which when dimerized leads to MET signaling. Onartuzumab, therefore, represents the founding member of a class of therapeutic monovalent antibodies that overcomes limitations of antibody bivalency for targets impacted by antibody crosslinking.

Genomic profiling of a Hepatocyte growth factor-dependent signature for MET-targeted therapy in glioblastoma.

BACKGROUND: Constitutive MET signaling promotes invasiveness in most primary and recurrent GBM. However, deployment of available MET-targeting agents is confounded by lack of effective biomarkers for selecting suitable patients for treatment. Because endogenous HGF overexpression often causes autocrine MET activation, and also indicates sensitivity to MET inhibitors, we investigated whether it drives the expression of distinct genes which could serve as a signature indicating vulnerability to MET-targeted therapy in GBM. METHODS: Interrogation of genomic data from TCGA GBM (Student's t test, GBM patients with high and low HGF expression, p ≤ 0.00001) referenced against patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models (Student's t test, sensitive vs. insensitive models, p ≤ 0.005) was used to identify the HGF-dependent signature. Genomic analysis of GBM xenograft models using both human and mouse gene expression microarrays (Student's t test, treated vs. vehicle tumors, p ≤ 0.01) were performed to elucidate the tumor and microenvironment cross talk. A PDX model with EGFR(amp) was tested for MET activation as a mechanism of erlotinib resistance. RESULTS: We identified a group of 20 genes highly associated with HGF overexpression in GBM and were up- or down-regulated only in tumors sensitive to MET inhibitor. The MET inhibitors regulate tumor (human) and host (mouse) cells within the tumor via distinct molecular processes, but overall impede tumor growth by inhibiting cell cycle progression. EGFR (amp) tumors undergo erlotinib resistance responded to a combination of MET and EGFR inhibitors. CONCLUSIONS: Combining TCGA primary tumor datasets (human) and xenograft tumor model datasets (human tumor grown in mice) using therapeutic efficacy as an endpoint may serve as a useful approach to discover and develop molecular signatures as therapeutic biomarkers for targeted therapy. The HGF dependent signature may serve as a candidate predictive signature for patient enrollment in clinical trials using MET inhibitors. Human and mouse microarrays maybe used to dissect the tumor-host interactions. Targeting MET in EGFR (amp) GBM may delay the acquired resistance developed during treatment with erlotinib.

Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) autocrine activation predicts sensitivity to MET inhibition in glioblastoma.

Because oncogene MET and EGF receptor (EGFR) inhibitors are in clinical development against several types of cancer, including glioblastoma, it is important to identify predictive markers that indicate patient subgroups suitable for such therapies. We investigated in vivo glioblastoma models characterized by hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) autocrine or paracrine activation, or by MET or EGFR amplification, for their susceptibility to MET inhibitors. HGF autocrine expression correlated with high phospho-MET levels in HGF autocrine cell lines, and these lines showed high sensitivity to MET inhibition in vivo. An HGF paracrine environment may enhance glioblastoma growth in vivo but did not indicate sensitivity to MET inhibition. EGFRvIII amplification predicted sensitivity to EGFR inhibition, but in the same tumor, increased copies of MET from gains of chromosome 7 did not result in increased MET activity and did not predict sensitivity to MET inhibitors. Thus, HGF autocrine glioblastoma bears an activated MET signaling pathway that may predict sensitivity to MET inhibitors. Moreover, serum HGF levels may serve as a biomarker for the presence of autocrine tumors and their responsiveness to MET therapeutics.

Benzoquinone ansamycin 17AAG binds to mitochondrial voltage-dependent anion channel and inhibits cell invasion.

Geldanamycin and its derivative 17AAG [17-(Allylamino)-17-demethoxygeldanamycin, telatinib] bind selectively to the Hsp90 chaperone protein and inhibit its function. We discovered that these drugs associate with mitochondria, specifically to the mitochondrial membrane voltage-dependent anion channel (VDAC) via a hydrophobic interaction that is independent of HSP90. In vitro, 17AAG functions as a Ca(2+) mitochondrial regulator similar to benzoquinone-ubiquinones like Ub0. All of these compounds increase intracellular Ca(2+) and diminish the plasma membrane cationic current, inhibiting urokinase activity and cell invasion. In contrast, the HSP90 inhibitor radicicol, lacking a bezoquinone moiety, has no measurable effect on cationic current and is less effective in influencing intercellular Ca(2+) concentration. We conclude that some of the effects of 17-AAG and other ansamycins are due to their effects on VDAC and that this may play a role in their clinical activity.

Structural basis for agonism and antagonism of hepatocyte growth factor.

Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is an activating ligand of the Met receptor tyrosine kinase, whose activity is essential for normal tissue development and organ regeneration but abnormal activation of Met has been implicated in growth, invasion, and metastasis of many types of solid tumors. HGF has two natural splice variants, NK1 and NK2, which contain the N-terminal domain (N) and the first kringle (K1) or the first two kringle domains of HGF. NK1, which is a Met agonist, forms a head-to-tail dimer complex in crystal structures and mutations in the NK1 dimer interface convert NK1 to a Met antagonist. In contrast, NK2 is a Met antagonist, capable of inhibiting HGF's activity in cell proliferation without clear mechanism. Here we report the crystal structure of NK2, which forms a "closed" monomeric conformation through interdomain interactions between the N- domain and the second kringle domain (K2). Mutations that were designed to open up the NK2 closed conformation by disrupting the N/K2 interface convert NK2 from a Met antagonist to an agonist. Remarkably, this mutated NK2 agonist can be converted back to an antagonist by a mutation that disrupts the NK1/NK1 dimer interface. These results reveal the molecular determinants that regulate the agonist/antagonist properties of HGF NK2 and provide critical insights into the dimerization mechanism that regulates the Met receptor activation by HGF.

Showering c-MET-dependent cancers with drugs.

The receptor tyrosine kinase, c-MET and its ligand hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor (HGF/SF) have become leading candidates for targeted cancer therapies. Inappropriate c-MET signaling through autocrine, paracrine, amplification, and mutational activation occurs in virtually all types of solid tumors (http://www.vai.org/met), contributing to one or a combination of proliferative, invasive, survival, or angiogenic cancer phenotypes. c-MET and HGF/SF participate in all stages of malignant progression and represent promising drug targets in a variety of cancer types, including carcinomas, sarcomas, and brain tumors. While many are in pre-clinical testing, a few inhibitors have entered clinical trials. With hundreds of thousands of potential responding cancers that express c-MET, the interest in this molecule as a drug target is not surprising. However, the cognate c-MET diagnostic tests lag behind. In addition, despite the great enthusiasm based on response rates in phase I trials, there is a need for caution. It is almost without question that combination therapies with c-MET-HGF/SF inhibitors will be required for most cancers to achieve a cytotoxic tumor response.

Met decoys: will cancer take the bait?

Inappropriate Met receptor tyrosine kinase signaling can produce proliferative, invasive, angiogenic, and antiapoptotic activities that contribute to malignant growth. Met can be activated by paracrine or autocrine mechanisms in a ligand-dependent fashion, or be constitutively activated by mutation and by other ligand-independent mechanisms. Because Met is inappropriately expressed in almost all types of human cancer, the HGF/SF-Met signaling pathway should be an exceptional target for cancer intervention strategies and therapies. In this issue of Cancer Cell, two reports show that the extracellular domain of Met is an important target for developing anticancer therapies.

RTK inhibition: looking for the right pathways toward a miracle.

Evaluation of: Lu KV, Chang JP, Parachoniak CA et al. VEGF inhibits tumor cell invasion and mesenchymal transition through a MET/VEGFR2 complex. Cancer Cell 22(1), 21-35 (2012). In glioblastoma, a well-characterized angiogenic target is VEGF. Bevacizumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody that binds to VEGF and was developed to inhibit the VEGF signaling pathway. Based on promising results from clinical trials that bevacizumab can prolong progression-free survival in recurrent glioblastoma patients, the US FDA granted this drug accelerated approval for the treatment of recurrent or progressive glioblastoma; however, there has been no evidence that the overall median survival of patients is prolonged. More recently, Phase II clinical trials tested bevacizumab in combination with traditional radiation and/or temozolamide in newly diagnosed glioblastoma patients and again showed prolonged progression-free survival in these patients, but overall survival was not significantly changed. More importantly, there was evidence that tumors resistant to or recurring after bevacizumab treatment often showed a more aggressive phenotype. Due to the lack of effective post-bevacizumab therapies, it has been suggested that treatment with bevacizumab not be used until patients have developed late-stage recurrent tumors. Under these circumstances, there is a timely need to uncover the mechanisms of resistance to bevacizumab. In this article, Lu et al. reported a novel mechanism whereby VEGF negatively regulates tumor cell invasion by blocking MET phosphorylation in the MET/VEGFR2 complex. They showed that inhibiting the VEGF pathway results in MET activation in VEGF-knockout mouse models and in patients after bevacuzimub treatment, and that MET knockdown blocked the invasiveness of VEGF knockout tumors, suggesting that blocking the MET pathway can prevent post-bevacizumab treatment tumor recurrence, providing a strong rationale for using a combination of MET and VEGF receptor inhibitors to treat glioblastoma patients.

Mig-6 modulates uterine steroid hormone responsiveness and exhibits altered expression in endometrial disease.

Normal endometrial function requires a balance of progesterone (P4) and estrogen (E2) effects. An imbalance caused by increased E2 action and/or decreased P4 action can result in abnormal endometrial proliferation and, ultimately, endometrial adenocarcinoma, the fourth most common cancer in women. We have identified mitogen-inducible gene 6 (Mig-6) as a downstream target of progesterone receptor (PR) and steroid receptor coactivator (SRC-1) action in the uterus. Here, we demonstrate that absence of Mig-6 in mice results in the inability of P4 to inhibit E2-induced uterine weight gain and E2-responsive target genes expression. At 5 months of age, the absence of Mig-6 results in endometrial hyperplasia. Ovariectomized Mig-6(d/d) mice exhibit this hyperplastic phenotype in the presence of E2 and P4 but not without ovarian hormone. Ovariectomized Mig-6(d/d) mice treated with E2 developed invasive endometrioid-type endometrial adenocarcinoma. Importantly, the observation that endometrial carcinomas from women have a significant reduction in MIG-6 expression provides compelling support for an important growth regulatory role for Mig-6 in the uterus of both humans and mice. This demonstrates the Mig-6 is a critical regulator of the response of the endometrium to E2 in regulating tissue homeostasis. Since Mig-6 is regulated by both PR and SRC-1, this identifies a PR, SRC-1, Mig-6 regulatory pathway that is critical in the suppression of endometrial cancer.

Met induces diverse mammary carcinomas in mice and is associated with human basal breast cancer.

Understanding the signaling pathways that drive aggressive breast cancers is critical to the development of effective therapeutics. The oncogene MET is associated with decreased survival in breast cancer, yet the role that MET plays in the various breast cancer subtypes is unclear. We describe a knockin mouse with mutationally activated Met (Met(mut)) that develops a high incidence of diverse mammary tumors with basal characteristics, including metaplasia, absence of progesterone receptor and ERBB2 expression, and expression of cytokeratin 5. With gene expression and tissue microarray analysis, we show that high MET expression in human breast cancers significantly correlated with estrogen receptor negative/ERBB2 negative tumors and with basal breast cancers. Few treatment options exist for breast cancers of the basal or trastuzumab-resistant ERBB2 subtypes. We conclude from these studies that MET may play a critical role in the development of the most aggressive breast cancers and may be a rational therapeutic target.

Novel therapeutic inhibitors of the c-Met signaling pathway in cancer.

A wide variety of human malignancies exhibit sustained c-Met stimulation, overexpression, or mutation, including carcinomas of the breast, liver, lung, ovary, kidney, and thyroid. Notably, activating mutations in c-Met have been positively identified in patients with a particular hereditary form of papillary renal cancer, directly implicating c-Met in human tumorigenesis. Aberrant signaling of the c-Met signaling pathway due to dysregulation of the c-Met receptor or overexpression of its ligand, hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), has been associated with an aggressive phenotype. Extensive evidence that c-Met signaling is involved in the progression and spread of several cancers and an enhanced understanding of its role in disease have generated considerable interest in c-Met and HGF as major targets in cancer drug development. This has led to the development of a variety of c-Met pathway antagonists with potential clinical applications. The three main approaches of pathway-selective anticancer drug development have included antagonism of ligand/receptor interaction, inhibition of the tyrosine kinase catalytic activity, and blockade of the receptor/effector interaction. Several c-Met antagonists are now under clinical investigation. Preliminary clinical results of several of these agents, including both monoclonal antibodies and small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors, have been encouraging. Several multitargeted therapies have also been under investigation in the clinic and have demonstrated promise, particularly with regard to tyrosine kinase inhibition.

c-Met overexpression is a prognostic factor in ovarian cancer and an effective target for inhibition of peritoneal dissemination and invasion.

The hepatocyte growth factor receptor c-Met is a receptor tyrosine kinase that plays an important role in tumor growth by activating mitogenic signaling pathways. The goal of this study was to evaluate the role of c-Met in the biology of ovarian cancer and to determine its potential as a therapeutic target. c-Met protein expression was detected by immunohistochemistry in 138 advanced-stage ovarian cancers using a tissue microarray annotated with disease-specific patient follow-up. Fifteen of 138 (11%) tissues had c-Met overexpression. Median survival for patients with high c-Met levels was 17 months versus 32 months (P = 0.001) for patients with low c-Met expression. Infection of SKOV-3ip1 cells with an adenovirus expressing a small interfering RNA (siRNA) against c-Met efficiently inhibited c-Met protein and mRNA expression as well as extracellular signal-regulated kinase and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase signaling. It also inhibited adhesion to different extracellular matrix components, human primary mesothelial cells, and full-thickness human peritoneum and, in vivo, to mouse peritoneum. This was paralleled by a significant reduction in alpha(5) and beta(1) integrin protein and mRNA expression as well as a reduction of urokinase and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2/MMP-9 activity. In SKOV-3ip1 ovarian cancer xenografts, i.p. treatment with the c-Met siRNA significantly reduced tumor burden, ascites formation, protease activity, and the number of peritoneal implants but not tumor size or angiogenesis. These results suggest that c-Met overexpression is a prognostic factor in ovarian cancer and that targeting c-Met in vivo inhibits peritoneal dissemination and invasion through an alpha(5)beta(1) integrin-dependent mechanism. Therefore, c-Met should be explored further as a therapeutic target in ovarian cancer.

Cooperative Effect of Oncogenic MET and PIK3CA in an HGF-Dominant Environment in Breast Cancer.

There is compelling evidence that oncogenic MET and PIK3CA signaling pathways contribute to breast cancer. However, the activity of pharmacologic targeting of either pathway is modest. Mechanisms of resistance to these monotherapies have not been clarified. Currently, commonly used mouse models are inadequate for studying the HGF-MET axis because mouse HGF does not bind human MET. We established human HGF-MET paired mouse models. In this study, we evaluated the cooperative effects of MET and PIK3CA in an environment with involvement of human HGF in vivo Oncogenic MET/PIK3CA synergistically induced aggressive behavior and resistance to each targeted therapy in an HGF-paracrine environment. Combined targeting of MET and PI3K abrogates resistance. Associated cell signaling changes were explored by functional proteomics. Consistently, combined targeting of MET and PI3K inhibited activation of associated oncogenic pathways. We also evaluated the response of tumor cells to HGF stimulation using breast cancer patient-derived xenografts (PDX). HGF stimulation induced significant phosphorylation of MET for all PDX lines detected to varying degrees. However, the levels of phosphorylated MET are not correlated with its expression, suggesting that MET expression level cannot be used as a sole criterion to recruit patients to clinical trials for MET-targeted therapy. Altogether, our data suggest that combined targeting of MET and PI3K could be a potential clinical strategy for breast cancer patients, where phosphorylated MET and PIK3CA mutation status would be biomarkers for selecting patients who are most likely to derive benefit from these cotargeted therapy.

A highly invasive human glioblastoma pre-clinical model for testing therapeutics.

Animal models greatly facilitate understanding of cancer and importantly, serve pre-clinically for evaluating potential anti-cancer therapies. We developed an invasive orthotopic human glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) mouse model that enables real-time tumor ultrasound imaging and pre-clinical evaluation of anti-neoplastic drugs such as 17-(allylamino)-17-demethoxy geldanamycin (17AAG). Clinically, GBM metastasis rarely happen, but unexpectedly most human GBM tumor cell lines intrinsically possess metastatic potential. We used an experimental lung metastasis assay (ELM) to enrich for metastatic cells and three of four commonly used GBM lines were highly metastatic after repeated ELM selection (M2). These GBM-M2 lines grew more aggressively orthotopically and all showed dramatic multifold increases in IL6, IL8, MCP-1 and GM-CSF expression, cytokines and factors that are associated with GBM and poor prognosis. DBM2 cells, which were derived from the DBTRG-05MG cell line were used to test the efficacy of 17AAG for treatment of intracranial tumors. The DMB2 orthotopic xenografts form highly invasive tumors with areas of central necrosis, vascular hyperplasia and intracranial dissemination. In addition, the orthotopic tumors caused osteolysis and the skull opening correlated to the tumor size, permitting the use of real-time ultrasound imaging to evaluate antitumor drug activity. We show that 17AAG significantly inhibits DBM2 tumor growth with significant drug responses in subcutaneous, lung and orthotopic tumor locations. This model has multiple unique features for investigating the pathobiology of intracranial tumor growth and for monitoring systemic and intracranial responses to antitumor agents.

The systemic administration of lethal toxin achieves a growth delay of human melanoma and neuroblastoma xenografts: assessment of receptor contribution.

Two of the three components of anthrax toxin, protective antigen (PA) and lethal factor (LF), together known as lethal toxin (LeTx), reportedly show anti-tumor activity in melanoma in vitro and in vivo. The growth inhibitory activity of LeTx in culture was determined in nine human cancer cell lines, including melanoma, neuroblastoma and adenocarcinoma cells, as well as in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC). The contribution of the two known PA receptor proteins, ANTXR1/TEM8 and ANTXR2/CMG2, to the sensitivity of the cells was assessed. The efficacy of LeTx was evaluated in vivo in the SK-N-AS neuroblastoma and SK-MEL-28 melanoma tumor xenograft models. Sensitivity to LeTx in vitro was observed in the neuroblastoma and colorectal adenocarcinoma cells and HUVEC, as well as melanoma cells. ANTXR1/TEM8 and ANTXR2/CMG2 protein expression studies suggested that a certain threshold of the PA receptor protein level must be met for sensitivity to LeTx to be observed. However, although the SK-N-AS neuroblastoma cells expressed the highest levels of receptor proteins and achieved the lowest IC50 in vitro (0.1 ng/ml), we observed no correlation between either the ANTXR1/TEM8 or ANTXR2/CMG2 protein levels and sensitivity to LeTx in vitro. In vivo, LeTx was an active anti-tumor agent when administered intravenously to mice bearing the human SK-N-AS or SK-MEL-28 tumor xenografts. The tumor growth delays were 6-8 days with a lower dose regimen and 14-16 days with a higher dose regimen for the two tumor models. These in vitro data suggest that LeTx may have broad therapeutic indications in cancer and the in vivo studies demonstrate that LeTx has systemic efficacy in neuroblastoma as well as melanoma. The therapeutic potential of LeTx needs to be further investigated in non-melanoma tumor models expressing the ANTXR1/TEM8 and/or ANTXR2/CMG2 protein.

Identification of a met-binding peptide from a phage display library.

PURPOSE: Aberrant c-Met expression has been implicated in most types of human cancer. We are developing Met-directed imaging and therapeutic agents. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: To seek peptides that bind specifically to receptor Met, the Met-expressing cell lines S114 and SK-LMS-1 were used for biopanning with a random peptide phage display library. Competition ELISA, fluorescence-activated cell sorting analysis, an internalization assay, and a cell proliferation assay were used to characterize a Met-binding peptide in vitro. To evaluate the utility of the peptide as a diagnostic agent in vivo, 125I-labeled peptide was injected i.v. into nude mice bearing s.c. xenografts of the Met-expressing and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)/scatter factor-expressing SK-LMS-1/HGF, and total body scintigrams were obtained between 1 and 24 h postinjection. RESULTS: One Met-binding peptide (YLFSVHWPPLKA), designated Met-pep1, reacts with Met on the cell surface and competes with HGF/scatter factor binding to Met in a dose-dependent manner. Met-pep1 is internalized by Met-expressing cells after receptor binding. Met-pep1 inhibits human leiomyosarcoma SK-LMS-1 cell proliferation in vitro. In SK-LMS-1 mouse xenografts, tumor-associated activity was imaged as early as 1 h postinjection and remained visible in some animals as late as 24 h postinjection. CONCLUSIONS: Met-pep1 specifically interacts with Met: it is internalized by Met-expressing cells and inhibits tumor cell proliferation in vitro; it is a potential diagnostic agent for tumor imaging.