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Purpose:Exploration of novel strategies to extend the benefit of PARP inhibitors beyond BRCA-mutant cancers is of great interest in personalized medicine. Here, we identified EGFR amplification as a potential biomarker to predict sensitivity to PARP inhibition, providing selection for the glioblastoma (GBM) patient population who will benefit from PARP inhibition therapy.Experimental Design:Selective sensitivity to the PARP inhibitor talazoparib was screened and validated in two sets [test set (n = 14) and validation set (n = 13)] of well-characterized patient-derived glioma sphere-forming cells (GSC). FISH was used to detect EGFR copy number. DNA damage response following talazoparib treatment was evaluated by γH2AX and 53BP1 staining and neutral comet assay. PARP–DNA trapping was analyzed by subcellular fractionation. The selective monotherapy of talazoparib was confirmed using in vivo glioma models.Results:EGFR-amplified GSCs showed remarkable sensitivity to talazoparib treatment. EGFR amplification was associated with increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) and subsequent increased basal expression of DNA-repair pathways to counterelevated oxidative stress, and thus rendered vulnerability to PARP inhibition. Following talazoparib treatment, EGFR-amplified GSCs showed enhanced DNA damage and increased PARP–DNA trapping, which augmented the cytotoxicity. EGFR amplification–associated selective sensitivity was further supported by the in vivo experimental results showing that talazoparib significantly suppressed tumor growth in EGFR-amplified subcutaneous models but not in nonamplified models.Conclusions:EGFR-amplified cells are highly sensitive to talazoparib. Our data provide insight into the potential of using EGFR amplification as a selection biomarker for the development of personalized therapy.

PI3K-targeting therapy represents one of the most sought-after therapies for glioblastoma (GBM). Several small-molecule inhibitors have been evaluated in clinical trials, however, the emergence of resistance limits treatment potential. Here, we generated a patient-derived glioma sphere–forming cell (GSC) xenograft model resistant to the PI3K-specific inhibitor BKM-120. Integrated RNA sequencing and high-throughput drug screening revealed that the Aurora A kinase (Aurora A)/Polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1)/cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (CDK1) signaling pathway was the main driver of PI3K inhibitor resistance in the resistant xenografts. Aurora kinase was upregulated and pCDK1 was downregulated in resistant tumors from both xenografts and tumor tissues from patients treated with the PI3K inhibitor. Mechanistically, the tyrosine kinase receptor Tie2 physically interacted with FGFR1, promoting STAT3 phosphorylation and binding to the AURKA promoter, which increased Aurora A expression in resistant GSCs. Concurrent inhibition of Aurora A and PI3K signaling overcame PI3K inhibitor–induced resistance. This study offers a proof of concept to target PI3K and the collateral-activated pathway to improve GBM therapy.Significance:These findings provide novel insights into the mechanisms of PI3K inhibitor resistance in glioblastoma.

Fruits are excellent sources of essential vitamins and health-boosting minerals. Recently, regulation of fruit ripening by both internal and external cues for the improvement of fruit quality and shelf life has received considerable attention. Rosmarinic acid (RA) is a kind of natural plant-derived polyphenol, widely used in the drug therapy and food industry due to its distinct physiological functions. However, the role of RA in plant growth and development, especially at the postharvest period of fruits, remains largely unknown. Here, we demonstrated that postharvest RA treatment delayed the ripening in tomato fruits. Exogenous application of RA decreased ripening-associated ethylene production and inhibited the fruit color change from green to red based on the decline in lycopene accumulation. We also found that the degradation of sucrose and malic acid during ripening was significantly suppressed in RA-treated tomato fruits. The results of metabolite profiling showed that RA application promoted the accumulation of multiple amino acids in tomato fruits, such as aspartic acid, serine, tyrosine, and proline. Meanwhile, RA application also strengthened the antioxidant system by increasing both the activity of antioxidant enzymes and the contents of reduced forms of antioxidants. These findings not only unveiled a novel function of RA in fruit ripening, but also indicated an attractive strategy to manage and improve shelf life, flavor, and sensory evolution of tomato fruits.

Active telomerase is essential for stem cells and most cancers to maintain telomeres. The enzymatic activity of telomerase is related but not equivalent to the expression of TERT, the catalytic subunit of the complex. Here we show that telomerase enzymatic activity can be robustly estimated from the expression of a 13-gene signature. We demonstrate the validity of the expression-based approach, named EXTEND, using cell lines, cancer samples, and non-neoplastic samples. When applied to over 9,000 tumors and single cells, we find a strong correlation between telomerase activity and cancer stemness. This correlation is largely driven by a small proliferating cancer cell population that exhibits both high telomerase activity and cancer stemness. This study establishes a novel computational framework for quantifying telomerase enzymatic activity and provides new insights into the relationships among telomerase, cancer proliferation, and stemness.

Comprehensive analysis of the TCGA Glioblastoma database has identified 3 prognostically relevant subgroups (Proneural, Classical and Mesenchymal). Interestingly, it has also revealed a near mutual exclusivity of EGFR amplification and TP53 mutations. There are only a few tumors with both amplified EGFR and mutant TP53. We decided to investigate the functional relationship between EGFR and TP53 relative to tumorigenesis and tumor proliferation. We selected from our molecularly characterized GSC bank a series of EGFR amplified+TP53wt/TP53mut lines for this study. Here we report that EGFR amplification overrides the effect of p53wt but co-regulates tumorigenesis with TP53R175H mutation. We show that CRISPR EGFR knockout in TP53wt cells leads to complete loss of cell growth suggesting that EGFR is essential for cell survival, providing growth signal and suppression of p53wt function. We further show that EGFR induces physical binding between p53wt and DNA-PKcs, which suppresses p53wt by inhibiting p53 phosphorylation at S15. The knockdown of DNA-PKcs restores p53wt anti-tumor function. In contrast, GSC262 harboring TP53R175H mutation is the only GSC that survives after EGFR knockout, suggesting that this specific mutation has a gain of function (GOF) to sustain growth without EGFR. This is confirmed by dual knockout of EGFR and TP53R175H showing no surviving cells. Further investigation shows both EGFR and p53R175H induce tumor glycolysis, the major energy metabolism and heightened growth signal for this group. We further show that EGFR mediated suppression of p53R175H is through DNA-PKcs binding to p53R175H and reduced S15 phosphorylation. Taken together, this study reveals 1) EGFR amplification is essential for tumor growth in TP53wt GSCs; 2) novel crosstalk between EGFR and p53 through DNA-PKcs. 3) EGFR suppresses p53wt function by providing the energy required for tumor growth through inducing glycolysis, and 4) TP53R175H is a GOF mutation that sustains life without EGFR by inducing glycolysis.

Temozolomide (TMZ) is the standard chemotherapy for malignant gliomas (MG), and resistance to this drug is mediated by the DNA repair protein O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT). Epigenetic silencing of the MGMT gene by promoter methylation in about 40% patients is associated with loss of MGMT expression that compromises DNA repair leading to favorable response to TMZ therapy. Understanding the mechanism of MGMT mediated repair and modulating MGMT activity will enhance TMZ activity in MGMT unmethylated MG. Here we report a novel mode of regulation of MGMT protein activity by Poly-ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP). We found that PAPR physically interacts with MGMT and PARylates MGMT in response to TMZ treatment. We further showed PARylation of MGMT by PAPR is required for MGMT binding to DNA and to remove O6-methylguanine adducts in damaged DNA induced by TMZ. All 4 PARP inhibitors (trapping and non-trapping) tested (Talazoparib, Pamiparib, Veliparib, Olaparib) can inhibit PARP-MGMT binding, PARylation of MGMT, binding to DNA and subsequent removal of O6 - lesions in damaged DNA. We showed combination of PARP inhibitor with TMZ potentiated TMZ cytotoxicity in both MGMT methylated and unmethylated Glioma stem cell lines, but more profoundly in unmethylated group in vitro and in vivo. PARP inhibition acted as a double-edged sword in MGMT unmethylated MG: blocking BER/SSBR pathway to repair TMZ induced N7-MetG and O3-MetA, and more importantly, suppressing PARP-mediated PARylation of MGMT and thus silencing MGMT activity to repair O6-MetG, resulting in augmented cytotoxicity. This is the first study to show that PARylation of MGMT by PARP is required for repairing TMZ-induced O6-methylguanine adducts, and inhibition of MGMT PARylation abolishes MGMT function and renders sensitization to TMZ treatment. This finding provides a rationale for combining TMZ/CCNU and PARP inhibitors in MGMT unmethylated MG patients to enhance the benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy.

PURPOSE Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling is highly active in glioblastomas. We assessed pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and efficacy of the pan-PI3K inhibitor buparlisib in patients with recurrent glioblastoma with PI3K pathway activation. METHODS This study was a multicenter, open-label, multi-arm, phase II trial in patients with PI3K pathway–activated glioblastoma at first or second recurrence. In cohort 1, patients scheduled for re-operation after progression received buparlisib for 7 to 13 days before surgery to evaluate brain penetration and modulation of the PI3K pathway in resected tumor tissue. In cohort 2, patients not eligible for re-operation received buparlisib until progression or unacceptable toxicity. Once daily oral buparlisib 100 mg was administered on a continuous 28-day schedule. Primary end points were PI3K pathway inhibition in tumor tissue and buparlisib pharmacokinetics in cohort 1 and 6-month progression-free survival (PFS6) in cohort 2. RESULTS Sixty-five patients were treated (cohort 1, n = 15; cohort 2, n = 50). In cohort 1, reduction of phosphorylated AKTS473 immunohistochemistry score was achieved in six (42.8%) of 14 patients, but effects on phosphoribosomal protein S6S235/236 and proliferation were not significant. Tumor-to-plasma drug level was 1.0. In cohort 2, four (8%) of 50 patients reached 6-month PFS6, and the median PFS was 1.7 months (95% CI, 1.4 to 1.8 months). The most common grade 3 or greater adverse events related to treatment were lipase elevation (n = 7 [10.8%]), fatigue (n = 4 [6.2%]), hyperglycemia (n = 3 [4.6%]), and elevated ALT (n = 3 [4.6%]). CONCLUSION Buparlisib had minimal single-agent efficacy in patients with PI3K-activated recurrent glioblastoma. Although buparlisib achieved significant brain penetration, the lack of clinical efficacy was explained by incomplete blockade of the PI3K pathway in tumor tissue. Integrative results suggest that additional study of PI3K inhibitors that achieve more-complete pathway inhibition may still be warranted.

Poly-ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) is an enzyme critical for regulating a variety of DNA damage repair mechanisms. In this study, we report that PARP inhibitor, talazoparib, showed strong single-agent cytotoxicity and remarkable selective activity in glioma stem-like cells (GSCs). This single agent activity was strongly correlated with EGFR amplification as shown by genomic analysis. GSCs withEGFR amplification (which occurs in about 45% of GBMs) exhibited higher oxidative base damage, DNA breaks, and genomic instability than non-amplified GSCs. To sustain the elevated basal oxidative stress, EGFR amplified GSCs harbored increased basal expression of DNA repair proteins. As a result, DNA damage and PARP-DNA complexes increased in the amplified GSCs following talazoparib treatment, which may explain the sensitivity of these GSCs to talazoparib. Further, we show that EGFR kinase activity is important for talazoparib sensitivity, as kinase-inactive EGFR mutant and EGFR knockout cell lines were resistant to talazoparib. Intriguingly, another PAPR inhibitor Olaparib, with similar PARP enzymatic inhibition potential but less PARP-trapping ability compared with talazoparib, did not show selective sensitivity in EGFR amplified GSCs. Our data provide insight into the anti-cancer activity of talazoparib through PARP inhibition and by trapping PARP-DNA complexes. In conclusion we propose the potential of EGFR amplification as a biomarker for selection of the development of personalized therapy.

The lack of knowledge about the relationship between tumor genotypes and therapeutic responses remains one of the most important gaps in enabling the development of effective targeted cancer therapies. Increasing evidence supports the notion that DNA damage response (DDR) signaling plays an important role in inducing radiation and temozolomide (TMZ) resistance in glioblastoma (GBM) and hence, it has emerged as a molecular target for therapeutic development. The cellular response to TMZ therapy is critically mediated by MGMT and DDR signaling networks that are regulated by Ataxia Telangiectasia Mutated (ATM) and Ataxia Telangiectasia and Rad3-related protein (ATR). ATR is a primary sensor of DNA damage initiating subsequent repair leading to cell survival. Here, we show that three clinical grade ATR inhibitors (Bay1895344, AZD6738 and VE-822) had similar selective sensitivity pattern across eight glioma-like stem cells (GSC) lines tested with three (GSC28, GSC11, GSC274) being the most sensitive, and three (GSC300, GSC272, and GSC20) being the most resistant cell lines. Interestingly, all three ATR inhibitors showed a significant synergism with TMZ (Combination index and Bliss model) in GSC300, GSC272, and GSC20, and antagonism in GSC28, GSC11, and GSC274. Further analysis showed that the synergistic group was resistant to single agent ATR inhibitor, whereas antagonistic group was inherently sensitive to ATR inhibitor. The synergistic response was not associated with any major genetic alterations such as MGMT status, EGFR amplification, PTEN deletion/mutation, or p53 deletion/mutation. However, GSEA analysis of baseline RNA-seq data of the 6 cell lines showed an enhanced expression of six DNA damage/repair/response pathways in the antagonistic group. It suggests that a low level of DNA damage/repair/response pathways could be a marker of synergy for TMZ with ATR inhibitors in GBM. Further studies are underway to validate this observation in more GSC lines in vitro and in vivo.

Glioblastoma (GBM) remains one of the most lethal and difficult-to-treat cancers. The poor prognosis of GBM patients is due in part to its resistance to available treatments, which calls for development of novel therapeutic agents/regimen. In this study, we tested a series of patient-derived primary glioma stem cells (GSCs) to 3 GSIs (RO4929097, BMS-708163, and LY3039478) by sphere formation assay. GSI sensitivity was defined by statistically significant inhibition of sphere forming ability. 46% of the GSC lines showed significant impairment by both GSIs (p

2047 Background: Poly-ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) is an enzyme critical for regulating a variety of DNA damage repair mechanisms such as BER/SSBR, and PARP inhibitors have been shown to have single agent activity in breast and ovarian cancer patients with BRCA ½ mutations. However, PARP inhibitor such as veliparib has limited single agent activity in GBM and identifying markers predicting sensitivity is critical to select individuals or certain groups of patients for PARP inhibitor therapy. Methods: Potency and selectivity of PARP inhibitors were analyzed in a panel of glioma stem cells (GSCs) with varying genetic background. In vivo anti-tumor activity was evaluated in xenograft models. Results: In this study, we report that PARP inhibitor, talazoparib, showed strong single-agent cytotoxicity and remarkable selective activity in glioma stem cells (GSCs). This single agent activity was strongly correlated with EGFR amplification. GSCs with EGFR amplification (which occurs in about 45% of GBMs) showed higher oxidative base damage, DNA breaks, and genomic instability than non-amplified GSCs. To sustain the elevated basal oxidative stress, EGFR-amplified GSCs had increased basal expression of DNA repair proteins. As a result of blocked DNA damage repair by talazoparib treatment, DNA damage accumulated and lead to increased PARP-DNA complexes, which was then trapped by talazoparib and resulted in high toxicity. The PARP-DNA trapping function of PARPi is essential as olaparib and veliparib, two PARP inhibitors with weak DNA-PARP trapping potential did not show sensitivity in GSCs. In contrast, Pamiparib, another PARP inhibitor with similar PARP-DNA trapping ability to that of talazoparib, showed selective sensitivity in EGFR-amplified GSC. Conclusions: Our data showed that EGFR amplified GSCs with higher basal DNA damage exhibited therapeutic vulnerability to PARP inhibitors with high PARP-DNA trapping ability, and that EGFR amplification is a potential selection or predictive biomarker for PARP inhibitor therapy in GBM.

Despite the availability of hundreds of drugs, there is little data on the efficacy of these agents in the extremely heterogeneous populations of tumor cells observed in glioblastoma. In this study, a high-throughput compound-screening (HTS) assay was used to identify drug sensitivities in a panel of 15 glioblastoma stem cell (GSC) lines, which are representative of the classic cancer genome atlas (TCGA) molecular subtypes, to 21 compounds in Published Protein Kinase Inhibitor Set (PKSI, GSK). This HTS screen identified sensitivity of GSCs to inhibitors of polo like kinase-1 (PLK-1), a key regulator of mitosis. Given that PLK-1 is often overexpressed in a broad spectrum of cancers, and with highest expression levels being correlated with poor prognosis in several cancer types, we further verified the HTS result with the second-generation PLK1 inhibitor volasertib as a single agent or in combination with ionizing radiation. Efficacy of volasertib was analyzed by Cell-Titer Glo 5 days after treatment. Molecular and cellular changes were approached by immunoblotting and flow cytometry. In vitro studies showed that volasertib inhibited cell viability with an IC50 ranging from 8.2nM to 4.36 µM. Volasertib induced G2/M arrest accompanied by high levels of PLK-1, Aurora B and phospho-histone 3 and prominent cleaved poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Colony formation assay demonstrated that volasertib plus ionizing radiation had synergistic effects on colony formation inhibition, suggesting that GSCs arrested in M phase by volasertib are more sensitive to ironizing radiation. Intracranial xenograft models showed that the combination of volasertib (10mg/Kg) and 10Gy radiation significantly inhibited GSC tumor growth and prolonged median survival when compared with radiation alone. Taken together, our results reinforce the potential therapeutic efficacy of volasertib in combination with radiation therapy for the treatment of glioblastoma.

Glioblastoma (GBM) represents a compelling disease for kinase inhibitor therapy because most of these tumors harbor genetic alterations that result in aberrant activation of growth factor–signaling pathways. The PI3K/mammalian target of the rapamycin (mTOR) pathway is dysregulated in over 50% of human GBM but remains a challenging clinical target. Inhibitors against PI3K/mTOR mediators have limited clinical efficacy as single agents. We investigated potential bypass mechanisms to PI3K/mTOR inhibition using gene expression profiling before and after PI3K inhibitor treatment by Affymetrix microarrays. Mitogen- and stress-activated protein kinase 1 (MSK1) was markedly induced after PI3K/mTOR inhibitor treatment and disruption of MSK1 by specific shRNAs attenuated resistance to PI3K/mTOR inhibitors in glioma-initiating cells (GIC). Further investigation showed that MSK1 phosphorylates β-catenin and regulates its nuclear translocation and transcriptional activity. The depletion of β-catenin potentiated PI3K/mTOR inhibitor-induced cytotoxicity and the inhibition of MSK1 synergized with PI3K/mTOR inhibitors to extend survival in an intracranial animal model and decreased phosphorylation of β-catenin at Ser552. These observations suggest that MSK1/β-catenin signaling serves as an escape survival signal upon PI3K/mTOR inhibition and provides a strong rationale for the combined use of PI3K/mTOR and MSK1/β-catenin inhibition to induce lethal growth inhibition in human GBM. Mol Cancer Ther; 15(7); 1656–68. ©2016 AACR.

RIG-G is a retinoic acid- or interferon-induced gene with potential anti-proliferation function. However, the mechanism underlying ATRA-induced RIG-G induction is not completely understood. Here, we demonstrate that ATRA up-regulates the expression of PU.1, which in turn directly binds to the promoter and increases the expression of RIG-G gene. Luciferase reporter assay and electrophoretic mobility shift assay reveal that PU.1 preferentially binds to one of the two putative binding sites on the RIG-G promoter. Moreover, silencing of PU.1 by shRNA markedly inhibited ATRA- but not IFNα-induced expression of RIG-G. These data provide new insight into the mechanism of ATRA-induced RIG-G expression.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common form of malignant brain cancer in adults. The prognosis of affected patients is poor and median survival is only one year. The essential role of PI3K signaling in GBM proliferation, metabolism and differentiation has been highlighted. The major mechanism for the oncogenic activity of PI3K is by preventing apoptosis through the downstream activation of Akt and mTOR. The importance of mTOR in the regulation of cell survival downstream of PI3K signaling provides a strong rationale for the use of dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitor. However, the limited effect of dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitor used as single agent is most likely due to activation of collateral pathways, suggesting that additional refinement of this overall approach is necessary. We investigated potential bypass mechanisms to PI3K/mTOR inhibition as a single agent and generated three resistant cell lines to PI3K/mTOR inhibitor with 3 to 5-fold increase in IC50 value and with an aim to identify the potential bypass of survival to PI3K/mTOR inhibitor. We show that the IC50 of the resistant cell lines and parental lines is correlated with s6 phosphorylation and the three resistant cell lines express increased level of phosphorylated ERK1/2, p70S6K and p90RSK protein levels. Further investigation show that RGS10, a regulator of G protein signaling, is down regulated in the resistant cell lines. Down regulation of RGS10 increases the GTP-bound Ras, implying that Ras activation defines the acquired resistance by activating the ERK/p90RSK pathway. Knockdown RGS10 in the parental cells induces ERK1/2, p70S6K and p90RSK phosphorylation and the resistance to PI3K/mTOR inhibitor. Raf1 or p90RSK knockdown can re-sensitize resistant cell lines to PI3K/mTOR inhibition. Combination of PI3K/mTOR inhibitor with Raf inhibitor Sorafinib efficiently inhibited the growth of the resistant cell lines showing Ras/Raf activation serves as an escape mechanism to PI3K/mTOR inhibition. These observations suggest that Ras/Raf signaling serves as an survival signal upon PI3K/mTOR inhibition and provides a strong rationale for the combined use of PI3K/mTOR and Raf1 inhibition to induce lethal growth inhibition in human GBM. Citation Format: Xiaolong Li, Shaofang Wu, Dimpy Koul, W.K. Alfred Yung. Downregulation of RGS10 induces PI3K/mTOR inhibitor resistance by Ras activation in glioblastoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 2122.

The human anion exchanger 1 (AE1) is the most abundant integral membrane protein in red cells and is responsible for the exchange of Cl(-) for HCO(3)(-). However, the detailed role played by the AE1 C-terminal region in the anion translocation and membrane trafficking process remains unclear. In this paper, we created four mutants in the human AE1 C-terminus by deletion of the residues Ala(891)-Phe(895), Asp(896)-Glu(899), Asp(902)-Glu(906) and Val(907)-Val(911), to investigate the role of these sequences in functional expression of AE1. WT AE1 and its deletion mutant constructs were expressed in HEK 293 cells. Western blotting showed that deletions of Ala(891)-Phe(895), Asp(896)-Glu(899), and Val(907)-Val(911) induced high expression of AE1, whereas loss of Asp(902)-Glu(906) results in stable low expression. Pulse chase assays of WT AE1 and its mutants showed that the stability of protein is unaffected by the levels of expression of the AE1 and its mutants. Ala(891)-Phe(895), Asp(902)-Glu(906) and Val(907)-Val(911) mutants exhibited lower levels of trafficking to the plasma membrane compared with WT AE1, while the Asp(896)-Glu(899) mutant was more highly expressed at the plasma membrane. The decreased ability of the mutants to mediate Cl(-)/HCO(3)(-) exchange in transfected cells revealed that the deletion sequences have an important role in transport activity. These results demonstrate that the studied residues in the AE1 C-terminus differently affect the expression, membrane trafficking and functional folding of AE1.

Despite the availability of hundreds of drugs, there is little data on the efficacy of these agents in the extremely heterogeneous populations of tumor cells observed in glioblastoma. In this study, a high-throughput compound-screening (HTS) assay was used to identify drug sensitivities of a panel of 15 glioblastoma stem cell (GSC) lines, which are representative of the classic the cancer genome atlas (TCGA) molecular subtypes, to 21 compounds in Published Protein Kinase Inhibitor Set (PKSI). This HTS screen identified sensitivity of GSCs to inhibition of polo like kinase-1 (PLK-1), a key regulator of mitosis. Given that PLK-1 is often overexpressed in a broad spectrum of cancers, and with highest expression levels being correlated with poor prognosis in several cancer types as well, we further verified the HTS result with the second-generation PLK1 inhibitor volasertib as a single agent or in combination with ionizing radiation in GSCs. Efficacy of volasertib was analyzed by Cell-Titer Glo 5 days after treatment. Morphological and molecular changes were approached by immunoblotting and flow cytometry after volasertib treatment, and in combination with ionizing radiation at 2 Gy. In vitro studies showed that volasertib inhibited cell viability with an IC50 ranging from 44.3nM to 4.36μM. Volasertib induced G2/M arrest accompanied by high levels of PLK-1, Aurora B and phosphor-histone 3 and prominent cleaved poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Colony formation assay demonstrated that volasertib and ionizing radiation had synergistic effects on colony formation inhibition, suggesting that GSCs arrested in M phase by volasertib are more sensitive to ironizing radiation. The promising in vitro results of volasertib in GSCs led to further investigate the drug efficacy in intracranial xenograft models by volasertib alone, and in combination with radiation. Taken together, our results reinforce the potential therapeutic candidate of volasertib as a single agent and in combination with ionizing radiation in glioblastoma. Citation Format: Jianwen Dong, Nghi Nguyen, Ravesanker Ezhilarasan, Shaofang Wu, Yuji Piao, Soon Young Park, Ningyi Tiao, Clifford Stephan, Erik P. Sulman, John F. de Groot. Synergistic antitumor effects of polo like kinase inhibitor volasertib in combination with ionizing radiation in glioblastoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 695. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-695

Glioblastoma (GBM), the most common malignant brain tumor in adults, represents a compelling disease for kinase inhibitor therapy because majority of these tumors harbor genetic alterations that result in aberrant activation of growth factor signaling pathways. PI3K/mTOR-pathway is dysregulated in over 50% of human glioblastomas (GBM) and represents an attractive target for therapy. One major challenge for single pathway PI3K inhibition targeting therapy is intrinsic resistance. To study the mechanism of intrinsic resistance to PI3K inhibition, we analyzed the pre- and post-treatment reverse phase protein arrays (RPPA) data of both giloma cells and giloma initiating cells (GIC). Mitogen- and stress-activated protein kinase 1 (MSK1) was markedly induced after PI3K inhibitor treatment and it was linked with increase expression of β-catenin. We further found that MSK1 directly interacts with β-catenin and stabilizes β-catenin protein level. MSK1 also regulates β-catenin nuclear translocation and β-catenin transcriptional activity. More interestingly, using in vitro kinase assay, we identified MSK1 is a kinase that phosphorylates β-catenin. Finally, we showed that depletion of β-catenin potentiates PI3K inhibitors induced cytotoxity in a series of GICs. Taken together, our results suggest that MSK1/β-catenin signaling may serve as an escape survival signaling upon PI3K inhibition, and combination of PI3K inhibition and MSK1/β-catenin inhibition is required to induce lethal growth inhibition in human glioblastoma cells. Citation Format: Shaofang Wu, Jun Fu, Siyuan Zheng, Roel G. Verhaak, W. K Yung, Dimpy Koul. MSK1 mediates PI3K inhibition resistance by induction of β-catenin phosphorylation in glioblastoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 1720. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-1720