Mutational K-ras activation arises very frequently in epithelial cancers, with highest frequencies prevalent in lung, pancreatic and colorectal cancers. K-ras mutant cancers are highly aggressive with extremely poor prognoses and high mortality rates. Unfortunately, these cancers remain highly refractory to both conventional and targeted therapeutics. Additionally, pharmacological inhibition of K-Ras protein has proven to be difficult to achieve clinically. My initial aim was to model """"""""addiction"""""""" to mutant K-ras in the hopes of identifying molecular determinants that define the """"""""Kras-addicted"""""""" state with the ultimate aim of identifying candidate therapeutic targets. Using K-ras-specific shRNAs to deplete K-Ras protein in lung and pancreatic cancer cell lines harboring mutant K-ras, I identified two classes - those that are """"""""addicted"""""""" to or dependent on K- Ras activity for viability and those that are K-Ras independent. By comparing whole genome expression profiles for these two classes, I derived a gene expression signature associated with K-Ras dependency. Several genes represented in this signature were required to maintain the viability of K-Ras dependent cancer cells, implicating them as candidate therapeutic targets in Kras mutant cancers. This proposal hopes to extend these initial findings by identifying lineage or tissue-specific anti-apoptotic genes in Kras mutant cancers, with the hopes of revealing novel context-specific therapeutic targets. Tissue-specific K-Ras dependency signatures will be generated for Kras mutant lung, pancreatic and colorectal cancers. Genes representing pharmacologically tractable targets will then be validated for their potential as candidate therapeutic targets. Cell biological and biochemical analyses will be performed to determine if there are tissue-specific biological or signaling features that contribute to the general phenomenon of K-Ras dependency. Finally, available pharmacological inhibitors against these targets will be tested for efficacy in pre-clinical mouse models of K-ras-driven tumorigenesis.

Public Health Relevance

Project Relevance Kras is the most frequently mutated oncogene in solid tumors with highest frequencies seen in lung, pancreatic and colorectal cancers. I propose to generate gene expression signatures for lung, pancreatic and colorectal cancers in the hopes of identifying novel therapies for each of these cancers, which are very difficult to treat with current chemotherapeutics.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
Research Transition Award (R00)
Project #
5R00CA149169-05
Application #
8676708
Study Section
No Study Section (in-house review) (NSS)
Program Officer
Watson, Joanna M
Project Start
2010-06-08
Project End
2015-05-31
Budget Start
2014-06-01
Budget End
2015-05-31
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2014
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Boston University
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Boston
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02118
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McNew, Kelsey L; Whipple, William J; Mehta, Anita K et al. (2016) MEK and TAK1 Regulate Apoptosis in Colon Cancer Cells with KRAS-Dependent Activation of Proinflammatory Signaling. Mol Cancer Res 14:1204-1216
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Li, Fuhai; Yin, Zheng; Jin, Guangxu et al. (2013) Chapter 17: bioimage informatics for systems pharmacology. PLoS Comput Biol 9:e1003043

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