The Sec61 translocon is a therapeutic vulnerability in Multiple Myeloma
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ABSTRACT: Multiple Myeloma (MM) is an incurable malignancy characterized by the uncontrolled expansion of plasma cells in the bone marrow. While proteasome inhibitors like bortezomib efficiently halt MM progression drug resistance inevitably develop, and novel therapeutic approaches are needed. Here, we used a recently discovered Sec61 inhibitor, mycolactone, to assess the interest of disrupting MM proteostasis via protein translocation blockade. In human MM cell lines, mycolactone caused rapid defects in secretion of immunoglobulins and expression of pro-survival interleukin (IL)-6 receptor and CD40, whose activation stimulates IL-6 production. Mycolactone also triggered pro-apoptotic endoplasmic reticulum stress responses synergizing with bortezomib for induction of MM cell death and overriding acquired resistance to the proteasome inhibitor. Notably, the mycolactone-bortezomib combination rapidly killed patient-derived MM cells ex vivo, but not normal mononuclear cells. In immunodeficient mice engrafted with MM cells, it demonstrated superior therapeutic efficacy over single drug treatments, without inducing toxic side effects. Collectively, these findings establish Sec61 blockers as novel anti-MM agents and reveal the interest of targeting both the translocon and the proteasome in proteostasis-addicted tumors.
Project description:Multiple myeloma (MM) is a devastating plasma cell malignancy characterized by the expansion of aberrant monoclonal plasma cells in the bone marrow, leading to severe clinical manifestations and poor prognosis, particularly in relapsed/refractory cases. Identifying novel therapeutic targets is crucial to improve treatment outcomes in these patients. In this study, we investigated the role of protein arginine methyltransferase 1 (PRMT1) in MM pathogenesis and explored its potential as a therapeutic target. We observed that PRMT1, responsible for majority of asymmetric di-methylation in cells, exhibited the highest expression among PRMT family members in MM cell lines and primary MM cells. Importantly, PRMT1 expression was significantly elevated in relapsed/refractory patients compared to newly diagnosed patients. High expression of PRMT1 expression was strongly associated with poor prognosis. We found that genetic or enzymatic inhibition of PRMT1 impaired MM cell growth, induced cell cycle arrest, and triggered cell death. Treatment with MS023, a potent PRMT type I inhibitor, demonstrated a robust inhibitory effect on viability of primary cells isolated from both newly diagnosed and proteasome inhibitor-relapsed/refractory patients in a dose-dependent manner. In vivo studies using a xenograft model revealed that targeting PRMT1 by either CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knockout or MS023 treatment significantly attenuated MM tumor growth and prolonged the survival of tumor-bearing mice. Histological analysis further confirmed increased apoptotic cell death in MS023-treated tumors. Collectively, our findings establish PRMT1 as an indispensable and novel therapeutic vulnerability in MM. The elevated expression of PRMT1 in relapsed/refractory patients underscores its potential as a target for overcoming treatment resistance. Moreover, our results highlight the efficacy of MS023 as a promising therapeutic agent against MM, offering new avenues for therapeutic approaches in relapsed/refractory MM.
Project description:Multiple myeloma (MM) is an incurable hematological malignancy in which MYC alterations contribute to the malignant phenotype. Nevertheless, MYC lacks therapeutic druggability. Here, we leveraged large-scale loss-of-function screens and conducted a small molecule screen to identify genes and pathways with enhanced essentiality correlated with MYC expression. We reported a specific gene dependency in glutaminase (GLS1), essential for the viability and proliferation of MYC overexpressing cells. Conversely, the analysis of isogenic models, as well as cell lines dataset (CCLE) and patient datasets, revealed GLS1 as a non-oncogenic dependency in MYC-driven cells. We functionally delineated the differential modulation of glutamine to maintain mitochondrial function and cellular biosynthesis in MYC overexpressing cells. Furthermore, we observed that pharmaceutical inhibition of NAMPT selectively affects MYC upregulated cells. We demonstrate the effectiveness of combining GLS1 and NAMPT inhibitors, suggesting that targeting glutaminolysis and NAD synthesis may be a promising strategy to target MYC-driven MM.
Project description:Multiple myeloma is an incurable hematological malignancy evolving from precursor states to advanced phases of the disease. MYC abnormalities play a critical role in the disease progression. Nevertheless, MYC lacks therapeutic drugability, thereby necessitating the exploration of alternative strategies aimed at circumventing the challenges associated with targeting MYC. In this study, we hypothesized that MYC upregulation induces genomic dependencies in tumor cells, creating vulnerabilities that can be exploited therapeutically. We discovered a differential dependency on glutamine metabolism in MYC overexpressing cells. We functionally explored these dependencies as a selective targetable vulnerability in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, we uncovered a potential synergistic combination that can exacerbated this metabolic vulnerability, Collectively, our in vitro and in vivo results revealed an effective therapeutic combinatory strategy in the context of MYC overexpressing MM.
Project description:Enhancing the efficacy of proteasome inhibitors (PI) is a central goal in myeloma therapy. We proposed that signaling-level responses after PI may reveal new mechanisms of action that can be therapeutically exploited. Unbiased phosphoproteomics after treatment with the PI carfilzomib surprisingly demonstrates the most prominent phosphorylation changes on splicing related proteins. Spliceosome modulation is invisible to RNA or protein abundance alone. Transcriptome analysis after PI demonstrates broad-scale intron retention, suggestive of spliceosome interference, as well as specific alternative splicing of protein homeostasis machinery components. These findings lead us to evaluate direct spliceosome inhibition in myeloma, which synergizes with carfilzomib and shows potent anti-tumor activity. Functional genomics and exome sequencing further support the spliceosome as a specific vulnerability in myeloma. Our results propose splicing interference as an unrecognized modality of PI mechanism, reveal additional modes of spliceosome modulation, and suggest spliceosome targeting as a promising therapeutic strategy in myeloma.
Project description:Multiple myeloma is an incurable hematological malignancy evolving from precursor states to advanced phases of the disease. MYC abnormalities play a critical role in the disease progression. Nevertheless, MYC lacks therapeutic drugability, thereby necessitating the exploration of alternative strategies aimed at circumventing the challenges associated with targeting MYC. In this study, we hypothesized that MYC upregulation induces genomic dependencies in tumor cells, creating vulnerabilities that can be exploited therapeutically. We discovered a differential dependency on glutamine metabolism in MYC overexpressing cells. We functionally explored these dependencies as a selective targetable vulnerability in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, we uncovered a potential synergistic combinations that can exacerbated this metabolic vulnerability, Collectively, our in vitro and in vivo results revealed an effective therapeutic combinatory strategy in the context of MYC overexpressing MM.
Project description:The microRNA (miRNA) cluster miR-17-92 is oncogenic and represents a valuable therapeutic target in c-MYC (MYC)-driven malignancies. Here, we developed novel LNA gapmeR antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) to induce ribonuclease H-mediated degradation of MIR17HG primary transcripts and consequently prevent biogenesis of miR-17-92 miRNAs (miR-17-92s). The leading LNA ASO, MIR17PTi, impaired proliferation of several cancer cell lines (n = 48) established from both solid and hematologic tumors by on-target antisense activity, more effectively as compared with miR-17-92 inhibitors. By focusing on multiple myeloma (MM), we found that MIR17PTi triggers apoptosis via impairment of homeostatic MYC/miR-17-92 feed-forward loops (FFLs) in patient-derived MM cells and induces MYC-dependent synthetic lethality. We show that alteration of a BIM-centered FFL is instrumental for MIR17PTi to induce cytotoxicity in MM cells. MIR17PTi exerts strong in vivo antitumor activity in nonobese diabetic severe combined immunodeficient mice bearing clinically relevant models of MM, with advantageous safety and pharmacokinetic profiles in nonhuman primates. Altogether, MIR17PTi is a novel pharmacological tool to be tested in early-phase clinical trials against MM and other MYC-driven malignancies.
Project description:Resistance to proteasome inhibitors (PIs) is a ubiquitous clinical concern in multiple myeloma. We proposed that signaling-level responses after PI would reveal new means to enhance efficacy. Unbiased phosphoproteomics after the PI carfilzomib surprisingly demonstrated the most prominent phosphorylation changes on spliceosome components. Spliceosome modulation was invisible to RNA or protein abundance alone. Transcriptome analysis demonstrated broad-scale intron retention suggestive of PI-specific splicing interference. Direct spliceosome inhibition synergized with carfilzomib and showed potent anti-myeloma activity. Functional genomics and exome sequencing further supported the spliceosome as a specific vulnerability in myeloma. Our results propose splicing interference as an unrecognized modality of PI mechanism, reveal additional modes of spliceosome modulation, and suggest spliceosome targeting as a promising therapeutic strategy in myeloma.
Project description:Resistance to proteasome inhibitors (PIs) is a ubiquitous clinical concern in multiple myeloma (MM). We proposed that signaling-level responses after PI would reveal new means to enhance efficacy. Unbiased phosphoproteomics after the PI carfilzomib surprisingly demonstrated the most prominent phosphorylation changes on spliceosome components. Spliceosome modulation was invisible to RNA or protein abundance alone. Transcriptome analysis demonstrated broad-scale intron retention suggestive of PI-specific splicing interference. Direct spliceosome inhibition synergized with carfilzomib and showed potent anti-myeloma activity. Functional genomics and exome sequencing further supported the spliceosome as a specific vulnerabilityin myeloma. Our results propose splicing interference as an unrecognized modality of PI mechanism, reveal additional modes of spliceosome modulation, and suggest spliceosome targeting as a promising therapeutic strategy in myeloma.