?Project4 Melanomaisthedeadliestformofskincancer.Whilesignificantprogresshasbeenmadetreatingmelanoma, drug resistant represents one of the greatest challenges to achieve optimal responses and improve patient outcomes. Our long-term goal is to understand mechanisms underlying dysregulated signaling and drug resistance in melanoma to form the pre-clinical basis for improved treatment options. In this project, we are focusing on a clinical unmet need, the treatment of cutaneous melanomas that are wild-type (WT) for BRAF (both WT BRAF/WT NRAS and mutant NRAS). MEK-ERK1/2 signaling is activated in WT BRAF melanoma but the response to MEK inhibitors is poor. Furthermore, immune checkpoint agents elicit responses in only 30-40% of cases and patients who are non-responsive have no effective treatment options. The goals of this project are to identify drugtolerance mechanisms in subsetsof WTBRAF melanomas to provide the basis for new strategies to improve targeted inhibitor treatments and provide salvage options for melanomas that are non-responsive to immune checkpoint agents. Our preliminary data indicate that MEK inhibition triggers a receptor tyrosine kinase-mediated adaptive response in WT/WT melanoma. Based on these data, we hypothesize that the efficacy of MEK inhibitors will be improved with agents targeting either adaptive ErbB3 responses or epigenetic BET/BRD ?reader? proteins, as these epigenetic readers regulate multiple receptor kinasetyrosinekinaseandoncogenicpathwaysassociatedwithdrugresistance.
We aim toidentifyandtarget mechanisms underlying enhanced activation of the growth factor receptor, ErbB3, in MEK inhibitor-treated melanoma. Additionally, we will test the efficacy of BET inhibitor-based combinations to mitigate stress/therapytolerancemechanismsanddevelopoptimalcombinatorialapproachestooffsetdrugresistance. We will primarily focus on WT/WT melanomabut, where possible, extend our observation to mutant NRAS melanoma. To achieve these goals, we will leverage our unique genetically and clinically annotated models including in vitro 3D/T cell autologous organoids, immune checkpoint inhibitor-resistant patient-derived xenografts and syngeneic mouse models. Through synergistic interactions withother projects and cores in the P01, we will identify mechanisms underlying tumor cell intrinsic and stromal-mediated adaptive responses to targeted and immune therapy and inform future combinatorial targeted/epigenetic inhibitor strategies that can be translated into effective treatments. This project meets the NCI mission by conducting research into the treatmentofthedeadliestformofskincancer.
?Project4 In Pennsylvania (the state served by our Cancer Centers), the 5 year incidence of melanoma is above the national average and is the fastest rising across cancer types. This proposal aims to address the issue of increased melanoma by providing the preclinical basis for targeted inhibitor and epigenetic inhibitor combinationswithinsubsetsofgenetically-definedwild-typeBRAFmelanomapatients.
| Noguera-Ortega, Estela; Amaravadi, Ravi K (2018) Autophagy in the Tumor or in the Host: Which Plays a Greater Supportive Role? Cancer Discov 8:266-268 |
| Jenkins, Russell W; Aref, Amir R; Lizotte, Patrick H et al. (2018) Ex Vivo Profiling of PD-1 Blockade Using Organotypic Tumor Spheroids. Cancer Discov 8:196-215 |
| Emptage, Ryan P; Lemmon, Mark A; Ferguson, Kathryn M et al. (2018) Structural Basis for MARK1 Kinase Autoinhibition by Its KA1 Domain. Structure 26:1137-1143.e3 |
| Barnoud, Thibaut; Budina-Kolomets, Anna; Basu, Subhasree et al. (2018) Tailoring Chemotherapy for the African-Centric S47 Variant of TP53. Cancer Res 78:5694-5705 |
| Liu, Shujing; Zhang, Gao; Guo, Jianping et al. (2018) Loss of Phd2 cooperates with BRAFV600E to drive melanomagenesis. Nat Commun 9:5426 |
| Pathria, Gaurav; Scott, David A; Feng, Yongmei et al. (2018) Targeting the Warburg effect via LDHA inhibition engages ATF4 signaling for cancer cell survival. EMBO J 37: |
| Reyes-Uribe, Patricia; Adrianzen-Ruesta, Maria Paz; Deng, Zhong et al. (2018) Exploiting TERT dependency as a therapeutic strategy for NRAS-mutant melanoma. Oncogene 37:4058-4072 |
| Rebecca, Vito W; Nicastri, Michael C; Fennelly, Colin et al. (2018) PPT1 promotes tumor growth and is the molecular target of chloroquine derivatives in cancer. Cancer Discov : |
| Kaur, Amanpreet; Ecker, Brett L; Douglass, Stephen M et al. (2018) Remodeling of the Collagen Matrix in Aging Skin Promotes Melanoma Metastasis and Affects Immune Cell Motility. Cancer Discov : |
| Chen, Gang; Huang, Alexander C; Zhang, Wei et al. (2018) Exosomal PD-L1 contributes to immunosuppression and is associated with anti-PD-1 response. Nature 560:382-386 |
Showing the most recent 10 out of 144 publications
