RESUMEN
Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive subtype of breast cancer lacking targeted therapy. Here, we evaluated the anti-cancer activity of APR-246, a P53 activator, and CX-5461, a RNA polymerase I inhibitor, in the treatment of TNBC cells. We tested the efficacy of individual and combination therapy of CX-5461 and APR-246 in vitro, using a panel of breast cancer cell lines. Using publicly available breast cancer datasets, we found that components of RNA Pol I are predominately upregulated in basal-like breast cancer, compared to other subtypes, and this upregulation is associated with poor overall and relapse-free survival. Notably, we found that the treatment of breast cancer cells lines with CX-5461 significantly hampered cell proliferation and synergistically enhanced the efficacy of APR-246. The combination treatment significantly induced apoptosis that is associated with cleaved PARP and Caspase 3 along with Annexin V positivity. Likewise, we also found that combination treatment significantly induced DNA damage and replication stress in these cells. Our data provide a novel combination strategy by utilizing APR-246 in combination CX-5461 in killing TNBC cells that can be further developed into more effective therapy in TNBC therapeutic armamentarium.
Asunto(s)
Benzotiazoles/farmacología , Daño del ADN , Replicación del ADN/efectos de los fármacos , Naftiridinas/farmacología , Quinuclidinas/farmacología , Apoptosis/efectos de los fármacos , Apoptosis/genética , Ciclo Celular/efectos de los fármacos , Ciclo Celular/genética , Línea Celular , Línea Celular Tumoral , Proliferación Celular/efectos de los fármacos , Proliferación Celular/genética , Supervivencia Celular/efectos de los fármacos , Supervivencia Celular/genética , Replicación del ADN/genética , Sinergismo Farmacológico , Regulación Neoplásica de la Expresión Génica/efectos de los fármacos , Humanos , Células MCF-7 , ARN Polimerasa I/antagonistas & inhibidores , ARN Polimerasa I/metabolismo , Neoplasias de la Mama Triple Negativas/genética , Neoplasias de la Mama Triple Negativas/patologíaRESUMEN
Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBCs) is a very aggressive and lethal form of breast cancer with no effective targeted therapy. Neoadjuvant chemotherapies and radiotherapy remains a mainstay of treatment with only 25-30% of TNBC patients responding. Thus, there is an unmet clinical need to develop novel therapeutic strategies for TNBCs. TNBC cells have increased intracellular oxidative stress and suppressed glutathione, a major antioxidant system, but still, are protected against higher oxidative stress. We screened a panel of antioxidant genes using the TCGA and METABRIC databases and found that expression of the thioredoxin pathway genes is significantly upregulated in TNBC patients compared to non-TNBC patients and is correlated with adverse survival outcomes. Treatment with auranofin (AF), an FDA-approved thioredoxin reductase inhibitor caused specific cell death and impaired the growth of TNBC cells grown as spheroids. Furthermore, AF treatment exerted a significant in vivo antitumor activity in multiple TNBC models including the syngeneic 4T1.2 model, MDA-MB-231 xenograft and patient-derived tumor xenograft by inhibiting thioredoxin redox activity. We, for the first time, showed that AF increased CD8+Ve T-cell tumor infiltration in vivo and upregulated immune checkpoint PD-L1 expression in an ERK1/2-MYC-dependent manner. Moreover, combination of AF with anti-PD-L1 antibody synergistically impaired the growth of 4T1.2 primary tumors. Our data provide a novel therapeutic strategy using AF in combination with anti-PD-L1 antibody that warrants further clinical investigation for TNBC patients.