Abstract 2710: Tumorigenic activity of a novel KIF5B-RET fusion gene

The KIF5B-RET gene is a novel fusion gene resulting from pericentric inversion between the kinesin family member 5B (KIF5B) and the rearranged during transfection (RET) gene, which recently isolated as an oncogene in non-small cell lung cancers. In the present study, we investigated the mechanisms associated with tumorigenic activity of KIF5B-RET fusion gene. We used a HEK-293T cell line stably expressing the KIF5B-RET fusion gene in pLOC lenti-viral vector. We investigated the tumor formation in a xenograft mouse models after subcutaneous injection and confirmed the expression of KIF5B-RET by PCR and western blot analysis. We also explored the mechanism of KIF5B-RET fusion gene in stable cell line. The KIF5B-RET stable cells showed upregulation of the cell growth, migration and colony formation. Furthermore, the KIF5B-RET stable cells induced the activation of BRAF, AKT and ERK compared with the parental cells. These results suggest that the KIF5B-RET fusion gene promotes the cell proliferation and tumorigenic activity though BRAF, AKT and ERK activation. These findings may also provide the possible that KIF5B-RET fusion gene as a ‘driver’ in some subgroups of lung cancers. Citation Format: Jung-Young Shin, Min-Young Kim, Kyoung-Hwa Son, Jeong-Oh Kim, Jin-Hyoung Kang. Tumorigenic activity of a novel KIF5B-RET fusion gene. [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 2710. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-2710