sar405838 and Disease-Models--Animal

Dedifferentiated papillary thyroid cancer (DePTC) is characterized by aggressive growth, recurrence, distant metastasis, and resistance to radioactive iodine (RAI) therapy. DePTC is also accompanied by poor prognosis and high early-mortality. Nevertheless, most DePTC cells show intact p53 downstream functionality. In cells with wild-type p53, the murine double minute2 (MDM2) protein interacts with p53 and abrogates its activity. Inhibition of the MDM2-p53 interaction restores p53 activity and leads to cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Restoring p53 function by inhibiting its interaction with p53 suppressors such as MDM2 is thus a promising therapeutic strategy for the treatment of DePTC. The novel MDM2-p53 interaction antagonist APG115 is an analogue of SAR405838, and is being tested in a phase I clinical trial. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of APG115 as a single-agent to treat DePTC. APG115 diminished the viability of p53 wild-type DePTC cells and induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. In a human xenograft mouse model, APG115 elicited robust tumor regression and cell apoptosis. These data demonstrate that further research is warranted to determine whether APG115 can be used to effectively treat DePTC patients.

Topics: Animals; Apoptosis; Carcinoma, Papillary; Cell Cycle Checkpoints; Cell Line, Tumor; Cell Proliferation; Cell Survival; Disease Models, Animal; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Female; Gene Expression; Humans; Indoles; Mice; Mutation; Neoplasm Grading; Protein Stability; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-mdm2; Spiro Compounds; Thyroid Neoplasms; Tumor Suppressor Protein p53; Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays

Endocrine therapy has been highly effective for the treatment of estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer, but endocrine resistance develops in a significant proportion of patients. In an effort to develop novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of endocrine-resistant breast cancer, we have evaluated a potent and specific MDM2-p53 interaction inhibitor, MI-77301, which has been advanced into clinical development, for its therapeutic potential and mechanism of action in vitro and in vivo in WHIM9 and WHIM18 patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models. Both WHIM9 and WHIM18 PDX models exhibit estradiol-independent tumor growth and are resistant to fulvestrant, a highly effective and selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD). MI-77301 activates wild-type p53 in WHIM9 and WHIM18 cells in vitro and in xenograft tumor tissues in vivo, and it effectively induces upregulation of p21 and cell-cycle arrest in vitro in both models. Although fulvestrant fails to inhibit tumor growth in either of the xenograft models, MI-77301 is highly effective in inhibition of tumor growth at a well-tolerated dose schedule. This study provides a preclinical rationale for evaluation of MI-77301 or other MDM2 inhibitors as a new therapeutic strategy for the treatment of endocrine-resistant breast cancer retaining wild-type p53. Mol Cancer Ther; 15(12); 2887-93. ©2016 AACR.

Topics: Animals; Antineoplastic Agents; Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal; Breast Neoplasms; Cell Cycle Checkpoints; Cell Line, Tumor; Disease Models, Animal; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Drug Resistance, Neoplasm; Female; Humans; Indoles; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-mdm2; Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators; Spiro Compounds; Transcriptional Activation; Tumor Suppressor Protein p53; Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays