Our studies are currently focused on preclinical evaluation of combination therapy with two drugs, rapamycin (mTOR inhibitor) and MS-275 (HDAC, histone deactylase inhibitor) which interact with the p16 and mTOR components of the two signaling pathways, RB and PI3K. During the past year a number of plasmacytoma, mantle cell lymphoma and multiple myeloma cell lines were treated singly and in combination with MS-275 and rapamycin. These drugs were found to act in a synergistic fashion to control cell proliferation. As such,we are identifying signaling pathways in the mouse that may be directly applicable to human tumors of B cell origin.
