Project description:MET amplification is present in 20% of gastric cancers and has been confirmed as a therapeutic target in clinical trials. The molecular mechanisms of response and resistance to MET inhibitors are not well understood. We investigated the determinants of MET dependency in human gastric cancer. MET inhibition inhibited proliferation and induced cell death only in MET-amplified gastric cancer cell lines. The effects on growth arrest were stronger than the effects on cell death. To identify possible resistance mechanisms, we performed whole-genome mRNA expression profiling. Molecular changes related to autophagy were among the top alterations observed. Consistent with these findings, autophagy levels increased in a concentration-dependent manner when MET-amplified cells were exposed to crizotinib. Autophagy inhibition caused a dramatic decrease in apoptosis in one of the MET-amplified cell lines (MKN45) but not in the other (SNU-5). Because autophagy may provide energy in cells subjected to growth factor deprivation, we explored the effects of MET or autophagy inhibition on cellular ATP levels. This revealed that autophagy-dependent ATP production was selectively required for apoptosis in the MKN45 cells and that chemical ATP depletion mimicked the effects of autophagy inhibition to block cell death. Overall, the data reveal a novel relationship between ATP depletion and resistance to MET inhibitor-induced cell death. Our observations suggest that autophagy inhibitors could have unintended consequences when they are combined with growth factor receptor inhibitors in tumors that require autophagy-dependent ATP production for apoptosis. 12 samples triplicate samples of SNU-5 and MKN45 +/- criztonib for 24 hours
Project description:MET amplification has been clinically credentialed as a therapeutic target in gastric cancer, but the molecular mechanisms underlying sensitivity and resistance to MET inhibitors are still not well understood. Using whole-genome mRNA expression profiling, we identified autophagy as a top molecular pathway that was activated by the MET inhibitor crizotinib in drug-sensitive human gastric cancer cells, and functional studies confirmed that crizotinib increased autophagy levels in the drug-sensitive cells in a concentration-dependent manner. We then used chemical and molecular approaches to inhibit autophagy in order to define its role in cell death. The clinically available inhibitor of autophagy, chloroquine, or RNAi-mediated knockdown of two obligate components of the autophagy pathway (ATG5 and ATG7) blocked cell death induced by crizotinib or RNAi-mediated knockdown of MET, and mechanistic studies localized the effects of autophagy to cytochrome c release from the mitochondria. Overall; the data reveal a novel relationship between autophagy and apoptosis in gastric cancer cells exposed to MET inhibitors. The observations suggest that autophagy inhibitors should not be used to enhance the effects of MET inhibitors in gastric cancer patients.
Project description:Receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) are recognized as targets of precision medicine in human cancer upon their gene amplification or constitutive activation, resulting in increased downstream signal complexity including heterotypic crosstalk with other RTKs. The Met hepatocyte growth factor RTK exhibits such reciprocal crosstalk with several members of the human EGFR (HER) family of RTKs when amplified in cancer cells. We observed that Met signaling converges on HER3 tyrosine phosphorylation across a panel of seven MET-amplified cancer cell lines and that HER3 is required for cancer cell expansion and oncogenic capacity in vitro and in vivo. In order to identify genes required for cancer cell proliferation in the MET-amplified setting whose expression, we stably transduced KatoII MET-amplified cells with shRNA targeting ERBB3, the gene encoding HER3. Stably-transduced cells were selected with puromycin, assayed for proliferative phenotype, and lysed for RNA extraction. Pooled libraries of total RNA were then sequenced using the Illumina HiSeq4000 platform, and differentially-expressed genes were identified from read counts normalized across samples. Differentially-expressed genes were further assayed for dependence on HER3 in other MET-amplified cell lines to identify genes recurrently dependent on HER3 in the MET-amplified setting.
Project description:The non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell line HCC827 harbors an activating EGFR mutation (exon 19 deletion) that confers sensitivity to the FDA-approved EGFR inhibitor erlotinib. By applying the ClonTracer barcoding system, we were able to show the presence of pre-existing sub-populations in HCC827 that contribute to erlotinib resistance. Prior studies implicated that MET amplification confers resistance to erlotinib in this cell line. Therefore we examined the effects of the c-Met inhibitor crizotinib on the barcoded HCC827 population when treated either sequentially or simultaneously with both inhibitors. Despite the significant reduction in barcode complexity, the erlotinib/crizotinib combination treatment failed to eradicate all of the resistant clones implying the presence of an erlotinib/crizotinib dual resistant subpopulation. We performed transcriptome profiling (RNA-seq) to elucidate the potential resistance mechanisms of the dual resistant subpopulation in comparison to vehicle-treated or single agent erlotinib-resistant HCC827 cell populations as controls. mRNA profiling of the subpopulations of human NSCLC cell line HCC827 that contribute to EGFR inhibitor erlotinib and MET inhibitor crizotinib resistance