Somatic Loss of Wild-Type Kras Enhances Cancer Fitness and Promotes MEK Dependence
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ABSTRACT: Investigating therapeutic “outliers” that show exceptional responses to anti-cancer treatment can reveal unexpected synthetic lethal interactions and uncover biomarkers of drug sensitivity. Preclinical trials investigating primary murine acute myeloid leukemias (AMLs) generated by retroviral insertional mutagenesis in KrasG12D “knock-in” mice showed that the MEK inhibitor PD0325901 (PD901) extended survival while the pan-phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor GDC-0941 was ineffective. One outlier PD901-treated AML had a four-fold improvement in survival, and exhibited intrinsic drug resistance at relapse. This resistant leukemia arose from an evolutionary precursor of the dominant drug-sensitive AML, and KrasG12D was duplicated in both AML clones. Loss of wild-type (WT) Kras both enhanced the competitive fitness of the dominant clone and rendered it more sensitive to MEK inhibition. Similarly, colorectal cancer cell lines with loss of WT KRAS are more sensitive to MEK inhibitors, and CRISPR-Cas9-mediated replacement of WT KRAS with a mutant allele sensitized a heterozygous mutant HCT116 cells to drug treatment. In a large prospectively characterized cohort of tumors from patients with advanced and metastatic cancers, 642 of 1168 (55%) with KRAS mutations exhibited allelic imbalance. Together, these studies demonstrate that serial genetic changes at the Kras/KRAS locus are frequent in cancer, and can modulate competitive fitness and MEK dependency.
ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus
PROVIDER: GSE92682 | GEO | 2016/12/22
SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA358327
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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