nvp-ast487 and Thyroid-Neoplasms

Inhibitors of RET, a tyrosine kinase receptor encoded by a gene that is frequently mutated in medullary thyroid cancer, have emerged as promising novel therapies for the disease. Rapalogs and other mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors are effective agents in patients with gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, which share lineage properties with medullary thyroid carcinomas. The objective of this study was to investigate the contribution of mTOR activity to RET-induced signaling and cell growth and to establish whether growth suppression is enhanced by co-targeting RET and mTOR kinase activities. Treatment of the RET mutant cell lines TT, TPC-1, and MZ-CRC-1 with AST487, a RET kinase inhibitor, suppressed growth and showed profound and sustained inhibition of mTOR signaling, which was recapitulated by siRNA-mediated RET knockdown. Inhibition of mTOR with INK128, a dual mTORC1 and mTORC2 kinase inhibitor, also resulted in marked growth suppression to levels similar to those seen with RET blockade. Moreover, combined treatment with AST487 and INK128 at low concentrations suppressed growth and induced apoptosis. These data establish mTOR as a key mediator of RET-mediated cell growth in thyroid cancer cells and provide a rationale for combinatorial treatments in thyroid cancers with oncogenic RET mutations.

Topics: Animals; Benzoxazoles; Carbanilides; Cell Line, Tumor; Cell Proliferation; Humans; Mice; Mice, Transgenic; Mutation; Protein Kinase Inhibitors; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-ret; Pyrimidines; RNA, Small Interfering; Thyroid Neoplasms; TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases

The RET kinase has emerged as a promising target for the therapy of medullary thyroid cancers (MTC) and of a subset of papillary thyroid cancers. NVP-AST487, a N,N'-diphenyl urea with an IC(50) of 0.88 mumol/L on RET kinase, inhibited RET autophosphorylation and activation of downstream effectors, and potently inhibited the growth of human thyroid cancer cell lines with activating mutations of RET but not of lines without RET mutations. NVP-AST487 induced a dose-dependent growth inhibition of xenografts of NIH3T3 cells expressing oncogenic RET, and of the MTC cell line TT in nude mice. MTCs secrete calcitonin, a useful indicator of tumor burden. Human plasma calcitonin levels derived from the TT cell xenografts were inhibited shortly after treatment, when tumor volume was still unchanged, indicating that the effects of RET kinase inhibition on calcitonin secretion were temporally dissociated from its tumor-inhibitory properties. Accordingly, NVP-AST487 inhibited calcitonin gene expression in vitro in TT cells, in part, through decreased gene transcription. These data point to a previously unknown physiologic role of RET signaling on calcitonin gene expression. Indeed, the RET ligands persephin and GDNF robustly stimulated calcitonin mRNA, which was blocked by pretreatment with NVP-AST487. Antagonists of RET kinase activity in patients with MTC may result in effects on plasma calcitonin that are either disproportionate or dissociated from the effects on tumor burden, because RET kinase mediates a physiologic pathway controlling calcitonin secretion. The role of traditional tumor biomarkers may need to be reassessed as targeted therapies designed against oncoproteins with key roles in pathogenesis are implemented.

Topics: Animals; Antineoplastic Agents; Calcitonin; Carbanilides; Cell Line, Tumor; Enzyme Inhibitors; Female; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; Glial Cell Line-Derived Neurotrophic Factor; Humans; Inhibitory Concentration 50; Mice; Neoplasm Transplantation; Phosphorylation; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-ret; Thyroid Neoplasms