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Inhibiting MYC has long been considered unfeasible, although its key role in human cancers makes it a desirable target for therapeutic intervention. One reason for its perceived undruggability was the fear of catastrophic side effects in normal tissues. However, we previously designed a dominant-negative form of MYC called Omomyc and used its conditional transgenic expression to inhibit MYC function both in vitro and in vivo. MYC inhibition by Omomyc exerted a potent therapeutic impact in various mouse models of cancer, causing only mild, well-tolerated, and reversible side effects. Nevertheless, Omomyc has been so far considered only a proof of principle. In contrast with that preconceived notion, here, we show that the purified Omomyc mini-protein itself spontaneously penetrates into cancer cells and effectively interferes with MYC transcriptional activity therein. Efficacy of the Omomyc mini-protein in various experimental models of non-small cell lung cancer harboring different oncogenic mutation profiles establishes its therapeutic potential after both direct tissue delivery and systemic administration, providing evidence that the Omomyc mini-protein is an effective MYC inhibitor worthy of clinical development.

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are key drivers of cancer metastasis, drug resistance, and disease recurrence. While the transcriptional regulatory circuitry that underlies the generation and propagation of the breast CSC state is not completely understood, defining the core regulators of the CSC state has the potential to reveal how these cells arise and point to potential targetable pathways for therapeutic intervention. We isolated CSCs by selecting for surface expression of integrin β4 (ITGB4). ITGB4-hi cells are highly enriched for CSCs and display cellular and molecular features indicative of their residence in an intermediate EMT state, including the ability to seed metastasis in vivo. Using ITGB4-hi CSCs isolated from the SUM159 breast cancer cell line, we deployed epigenome mapping by H3K27ac ChIP-seq, nucleosome occupancy by ATAC-seq, and transcriptome analysis by RNA-seq. Using comparative analysis of enhancer usage and DNA accessibility, we identified the transcriptional regulatory circuitry of breast cancer CSCs and pinpointed the master transcription factors that control the CSC state. We find that p63/p73 proteins function as master transcriptional regulators in breast CSCs and establish super-enhancers at critical CSC state genes. Loss of p63 and p73 disrupts the transcriptional circuitry of CSCs and leads to a highly mesenchymal state that is incompatible with metastatic colonization. Re-introduction of p63/p73 expression into non-CSCs leads to reactivation of the CSC transcriptional program and enables metastasis. These findings reveal the unique transcriptional circuitry of CSCs and suggest potential dependencies and pathways for therapeutic targeting of cells in the CSC state. Citation Format: Arthur Lambert, Christopher Fiore, Yogesh Chutake, Elisha Verhaar, Mei Wei Chen, Joana Donaher, Ferenc Reinhardt, Ian Engstrom, Bingbing Yuan, Brian Bierie, Daneyal Farouq, John Carulli, Eric Olson, Matthew Guenther, Robert Weinberg. Epigenomic analysis of cancer stem cells (CSCs) from triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) reveals p63 and p73 as core metastasis drivers [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2019 Dec 10-14; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P4-04-02.

Purpose Fatty acid synthase (FASN) regulates de novo lipogenesis, body weight, and tumor growth. We examined whether common germline single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the FASN gene affect prostate cancer (PCa) risk or PCa-specific mortality and whether these effects vary by body mass index (BMI). Methods In a prospective nested case-control study of 1,331 white patients with PCa and 1,267 age-matched controls, we examined associations of five common SNPs within FASN (and 5 kb upstream/downstream, R2 > 0.8) with PCa incidence and, among patients, PCa-specific death and tested for an interaction with BMI. Survival analyses were repeated for tumor FASN expression (n = 909). Results Four of the five SNPs were associated with lethal PCa. SNP rs1127678 was significantly related to higher BMI and interacted with BMI for both PCa risk (Pinteraction = .004) and PCa mortality (Pinteraction = .056). Among overweight men (BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2), but not leaner men, the homozygous variant allele carried a relative risk of advanced PCa of 2.49 (95% CI, 1.00 to 6.23) compared with lean men with the wild type. Overweight patients carrying the variant allele had a 2.04 (95% CI, 1.31 to 3.17) times higher risk of PCa mortality. Similarly, overweight patients with elevated tumor FASN expression had a 2.73 (95% CI, 1.05 to 7.08) times higher risk of lethal PCa (Pinteraction = .02). Conclusion FASN germline polymorphisms were significantly associated with risk of lethal PCa. Significant interactions of BMI with FASN polymorphisms and FASN tumor expression suggest FASN as a potential link between obesity and poor PCa outcome and raise the possibility that FASN inhibition could reduce PCa-specific mortality, particularly in overweight men.

Deregulation of the MYC oncoprotein promotes tumorigenesis in most, if not all, cancers and is often associated with poor prognosis. However, targeting MYC has long been considered impossible based on the assumption that it would cause catastrophic side effects in normal tissues. Despite this general preconceived notion, we showed that MYC inhibition exerts extraordinary therapeutic impact in various genetic mouse models of cancer, and causes only mild, well-tolerated and reversible side effects. For these studies we employed the systemic and conditional expression of a dominant negative of MYC, called Omomyc, which we designed and validated, and that can inhibit MYC transactivation function both in vitro and in vivo. To date, Omomyc has only been considered a proof of principle, with any potential clinical application limited to gene therapy. Here we actually show that the 11 kDa Omomyc polypeptide spontaneously transduces into cancer cells, demonstrating unexpected cell-penetrating ability. Once inside the nuclei, the polypeptide effectively blocks MYC binding to its target DNA sites, interfering with MYC transcriptional regulation and halting cell proliferation. Moreover, intranasal (i.n.) administration of the Omomyc polypeptide in mice results in its rapid and persistent distribution to lungs, as well as to other organs (i.e. intestine, liver, kidneys and brain). Importantly, i.n. treatment of mice bearing either Non-Small-Cell-Lung-Cancer (NSCLC) or glioblastoma (GBM) with the Omomyc cell-penetrating peptide (OmomycCPP) significantly reduces tumor burden compared to their control counterparts. Notably, tumor regression is accompanied by significant reprogramming of the tumor microenvironment and tumor immune response. In summary, our data indicate that this novel generation of polypeptides represents a new opportunity to potentially inhibit MYC pharmacologically in a variety of malignant diseases. Citation Format: Marie-eve Beaulieu, Toni Jauset, Daniel Massó-Vallés, Peter Rahl, Sandra Martinez-Martin, Loika Maltais, Mariano F. Zacarias-Fluck, Silvia Casacuberta, Erika Serrano del Pozo, Christopher Fiore, Laia Foradada, Matthew Guenther, Eduardo Romero Sanz, Marta Oteo Vives, Cynthia Tremblay, Martin Montagne, Miguel Ángel Morcillo Alonso, Jonathan R. Whitfield, Pierre Lavigne, Laura Soucek. Preclinical validation of an Omomyc cell-penetrating peptide as a viable anti-Myc therapy [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 2167. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-2167

Purpose: SPINK1 overexpression has been described in prostate cancer and is linked with poor prognosis in many cancers. The objective of this study was to characterize the association between SPINK1 overexpression and prostate cancer–specific survival. Experimental Design: The study included 879 participants in the U.S. Physicians' Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, diagnosed with prostate cancer (1983–2004) and treated by radical prostatectomy. Protein tumor expression of SPINK1 was evaluated by immunohistochemistry on tumor tissue microarrays. Results: Seventy-four of 879 (8%) prostate cancer tumors were SPINK1 positive. Immunohistochemical data were available for PTEN, p-Akt, pS6, stathmin, androgen receptor (AR), and ERG (as a measure of the TMPRSS2:ERG translocation). Compared with SPINK1-negative tumors, SPINK1-positive tumors showed higher PTEN and stathmin expression, and lower expression of AR (P < 0.01). SPINK1 overexpression was seen in 47 of 427 (11%) ERG-negative samples and in 19 of 427 (4%) ERG-positive cases (P = 0.0003). We found no significant associations between SPINK1 status and Gleason grade or tumor stage. There was no association between SPINK1 expression and biochemical recurrence (P = 0.56). Moreover, there was no association between SPINK1 expression and prostate cancer mortality (there were 75 lethal cases of prostate cancer during a mean of 13.5 years follow-up; HR = 0.71; 95% confidence interval, 0.29–1.76). Conclusions: Our results suggest that SPINK1 protein expression may not be a predictor of recurrence or lethal prostate cancer amongst men treated by radical prostatectomy. SPINK1 and ERG protein expression do not seem to be entirely mutually exclusive, as some previous studies have suggested. Clin Cancer Res; 20(18); 4904–11. ©2014 AACR.

BRCA1 functions as a tumor suppressor; recent work suggests that BRCA1 may also induce cell cycle arrest to allow for DNA repair. We hypothesized that BRCA1 expression in prostate tumor tissue may be associated with prostate cancer progression through regulation of the cell cycle. We used immunohistochemistry to evaluate BRCA1 protein expression in archival tumor samples from 393 prostate cancer cases in the Physicians' Health Study. The men were followed prospectively from diagnosis to development of metastases and mortality. Fifteen percent of tumors stained positive for BRCA1. BRCA1-positive tumors had substantially increased tumor proliferation index compared with negative tumors (47.0 Ki67-positive nuclei versus 10.3, P = 0.0016) and were more likely to develop lethal cancer compared with BRCA1-negative tumors (hazard ratio, 4.6; 95% confidence interval, 2.4–8.7). These findings strengthen the hypothesis that BRCA1 plays a role in cell cycle control and show that BRCA1 is a marker of clinical prostate cancer prognosis. Cancer Res; 70(8); 3136–9. ©2010 AACR.

BACKGROUND: Overexpression of the fatty acid synthase (FASN) gene has been implicated in prostate carcinogenesis. We sought to directly assess the oncogenic potential of FASN. METHODS: We used immortalized human prostate epithelial cells (iPrECs), androgen receptor-overexpressing iPrECs (AR-iPrEC), and human prostate adenocarcinoma LNCaP cells that stably overexpressed FASN for cell proliferation assays, soft agar assays, and tests of tumor formation in immunodeficient mice. Transgenic mice expressing FASN in the prostate were generated to assess the effects of FASN on prostate histology. Apoptosis was evaluated by Hoechst 33342 staining and by fluorescence-activated cell sorting in iPrEC-FASN cells treated with stimulators of the intrinsic and extrinsic pathways of apoptosis (ie, camptothecin and anti-Fas antibody, respectively) or with a small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting FASN. FASN expression was compared with the apoptotic index assessed by the terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase-mediated UTP end-labeling method in 745 human prostate cancer samples by using the least squares means procedure. All statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS: Forced expression of FASN in iPrECs, AR-iPrECs, and LNCaP cells increased cell proliferation and soft agar growth. iPrECs that expressed both FASN and androgen receptor (AR) formed invasive adenocarcinomas in immunodeficient mice (12 of 14 mice injected formed tumors vs 0 of 14 mice injected with AR-iPrEC expressing empty vector (P < .001, Fisher exact test); however, iPrECs that expressed only FASN did not. Transgenic expression of FASN in mice resulted in prostate intraepithelial neoplasia, the incidence of which increased from 10% in 8- to 16-week-old mice to 44% in mice aged 7 months or more (P = .0028, Fisher exact test), but not in invasive tumors. In LNCaP cells, siRNA-mediated silencing of FASN resulted in apoptosis. FASN overexpression protected iPrECs from apoptosis induced by camptothecin but did not protect iPrECs from Fas receptor-induced apoptosis. In human prostate cancer specimens, FASN expression was inversely associated with the apoptotic rate (mean percentage of apoptotic cells, lowest vs highest quartile of FASN expression: 2.76 vs 1.34, difference = 1.41, 95% confidence interval = 0.45 to 2.39, Ptrend = .0046). CONCLUSIONS: These observations suggest that FASN can act as a prostate cancer oncogene in the presence of AR and that FASN exerts its oncogenic effect by inhibiting the intrinsic pathway of apoptosis.

Fatty acid synthase (FASN), a key metabolic enzyme for liponeogenesis highly expressed in several human cancers, displays oncogenic properties such as resistance to apoptosis and induction of proliferation when overexpressed. To date, no mechanism has been identified to explain the oncogenicity of FASN in prostate cancer. We generated immortalized prostate epithelial cells (iPrECs) overexpressing FASN, and found that (14)C-acetate incorporation into palmitate synthesized de novo by FASN was significantly elevated in immunoprecipitated Wnt-1 when compared to isogenic cells not overexpressing FASN. Overexpression of FASN caused membranous and cytoplasmic beta-catenin protein accumulation and activation, whereas FASN knockdown by short-hairpin RNA resulted in a reduction in the extent of beta-catenin activation. Orthotopic transplantation of iPrECs overexpressing FASN in nude mice resulted in invasive tumors that overexpressed beta-catenin. A strong significant association between FASN and cytoplasmic (stabilized) beta-catenin immunostaining was found in 862 cases of human prostate cancer after computerized subtraction of the membranous beta-catenin signal (P

Background: Vitamin D is inversely associated with risk of several malignancies. Circulating vitamin D interacts with the vitamin D receptor (VDR) at the cellular level to inhibit proliferation, increase apoptosis and decrease angiogenesis. Thus, although vitamin D levels appear to be unrelated to total prostate cancer incidence, VDR levels in tumor tissue may influence prostate cancer prognosis. Methods: We examined the immunohistochemical expression of VDR on archival tumor tissue from 841 prostate cancer cases diagnosed between 1982 and 2004 within two ongoing, prospective cohorts: the Physicians' Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study. VDR expression was measured quantitatively using the CRi Vectra™ system. We used Cox proportional hazards regression to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association of VDR expression with lethal prostate cancer (N=73) through 2008. On a subset of cases, we also examined correlation of tumor VDR expression with circulating 25(OH)D3 and 1alpha,25(OH)2D3 measured at baseline (N=84) in 1982 and two SNPs in VDR: Fok1 and bsm1 (N=140). Results: Men with high tumor VDR expression had significantly lower Gleason score, lower prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels at diagnosis, and were less likely to have advanced tumor stage (p=0.008, p=0.012, p=0.001, respectively). Compared to the lowest quartile, men in the highest quartile of VDR expression were at significantly lower risk of developing lethal prostate cancer (age-adjusted HRs across quartiles Q2=0.95, 95% CI: 0.51–1.79; Q3=0.93, 95% CI: 0.49–1.76; Q4 = 0.23, 95% CI:0.09–0.55). This association was attenuated (HRQ4vsQ1 = 0.42, 95% CI: 0.16–1.09) after further adjustment for pathological tumor stage, Gleason grade, and PSA level at diagnosis. Tumors expressing high levels of VDR had modest downregulation of cell proliferation as measured by Ki67 (r=-0.11). Moreover, expression of estrogen receptor alpha (r=0.40, p Conclusion: In this large prospective study, men with tumors that demonstrated upregulation of VDR had significantly improved clinical features and reduced risk of lethal prostate cancer. In line with experimental studies, the positive correlation between VDR expression, and androgen receptor and estrogen receptor provides evidence that that VDR acts in an androgen- and/or estrogen-dependent manner. These data highlight the potential role of the vitamin D system in preventing prostate cancer progression. Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2010;3(1 Suppl):PR-01.