Harnessing Hypoxia Biology for Cancer Therapy
October 16, 2024Yale Cancer Center Grand Rounds | September 3, 2024
Presented by: Dr. Peter Glazer
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- 12219
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- 00:00Peter is the chair of
- 00:03therapeutic radiology
- 00:05and the Robert Hunter professor
- 00:07of therapeutic radiology and professor
- 00:09of genetics.
- 00:11Peter did his MD and
- 00:13PhD at Yale.
- 00:16I'm
- 00:17sobered to admit that, in
- 00:19fact, we were here at
- 00:21the same time,
- 00:23in medical school.
- 00:26And, Peter has spent his
- 00:29career at Yale,
- 00:31where
- 00:32he has,
- 00:34focused, of course, on radiation
- 00:36oncology and has led the
- 00:38group,
- 00:39for quite a number of
- 00:40years.
- 00:42And himself is,
- 00:44predominantly
- 00:45a laboratory scientist,
- 00:47who has,
- 00:49worked in a number of
- 00:50areas, but,
- 00:52predominantly in the area of
- 00:53DNA damage repair
- 00:55and is the recipient of
- 00:57an outstanding investigator award that
- 00:59that focuses on that very
- 01:00topic.
- 01:01So without further ado, Peter,
- 01:03it's really a pleasure to
- 01:05have you as our first
- 01:06noon speaker
- 01:08in the current, Eric.
- 01:15Thanks, Eric. I appreciate it.
- 01:16And,
- 01:18nice to be here, everyone.
- 01:20Thank you for coming. And
- 01:21it doesn't hurt that there's
- 01:22a free lunch, so
- 01:24that's great. So I'm I'm
- 01:25gonna tell you about some
- 01:26of the work that we've
- 01:27been doing for a number
- 01:28of years.
- 01:29And so there's gonna be
- 01:30something old and something new,
- 01:33related to hypoxia biology and
- 01:35how you might exploit that
- 01:36for,
- 01:37cancer therapy. So these are,
- 01:39my disclosures.
- 01:42And so,
- 01:43many of you will be
- 01:44familiar with the hallmarks of
- 01:46cancer. It's a series of
- 01:48publications from Hanahan and Weinberg
- 01:50and others that have talked
- 01:52about some of the properties
- 01:53of cancer cells. And what
- 01:55I just wanna call out
- 01:56here is that, tumor hypoxia
- 01:59plays a important role in
- 02:01a number of these. And
- 02:03some of these listed here
- 02:04altered metabolism,
- 02:06inducing invasion, metastasis.
- 02:08There's a literature on that.
- 02:10Of course, hypoxia causes,
- 02:12angiogenesis.
- 02:14But what I'm going to
- 02:15talk about today is our
- 02:16work in which we identified
- 02:17that,
- 02:19one of the impacts of
- 02:20hypoxia is,
- 02:21genetic instability
- 02:23in, cancer.
- 02:24Now this work started,
- 02:26a number of years ago
- 02:28when I was at a
- 02:29Gordon conference
- 02:30on DNA repair mutagenesis,
- 02:33and, one of the speakers
- 02:34was Larry Loeb, who's a
- 02:35very prominent pathologist
- 02:37at University of Washington
- 02:39in the DNA repair field.
- 02:40And he proposed,
- 02:42you know, in the nineties
- 02:43that,
- 02:45there would be a mutator
- 02:46phenotype in cancer cells. And
- 02:48this was based on the
- 02:49idea that
- 02:51the the,
- 02:52frequency of mutations in cancer
- 02:54cells was above and beyond
- 02:56what you would predict from
- 02:57the frequency of mutagenesis
- 02:59and normal cells.
- 03:00So
- 03:01he inferred that there had
- 03:02to be a mutator phenotype.
- 03:04Now at the time, people
- 03:06were focused on, well, there's
- 03:08gonna be mutations in mute
- 03:10in DNA repair mutator genes
- 03:12that's that is going to
- 03:13lead to
- 03:14the increase in mutation frequency.
- 03:17But, as I was sitting
- 03:19in the audience, it occurred
- 03:20to me, well, one of
- 03:21the issues is people do
- 03:22all these studies of,
- 03:24DNA repair mutagenesis
- 03:26in cells and culture,
- 03:27but they're growing in a
- 03:29in a standard,
- 03:30tissue culture dish,
- 03:33in really nice media at
- 03:35twenty percent oxygen.
- 03:37And in fact, most cancer
- 03:39cells do not exist in
- 03:40twenty percent oxygen. They they
- 03:41exist in somewhere between
- 03:43point one to five percent
- 03:45oxygen.
- 03:46And in fact,
- 03:47there is
- 03:49a lot of variety in
- 03:50the level of oxygen tension
- 03:51in tumors that has to
- 03:52do with abnormal and fluctuating
- 03:55perfusion,
- 03:57and then as well distance
- 03:58from the vasculature, which creates
- 04:01a gradient of hypoxia.
- 04:03So
- 04:04my my proposal was,
- 04:06could this,
- 04:07hypoxia that you see in
- 04:09the tumor microenvironment
- 04:10impact genetic instability?
- 04:12Now one of the first
- 04:13grants that I submitted on
- 04:15this was turned down, and
- 04:17one of the reviewers
- 04:18said, well, that can't be
- 04:20possible
- 04:21because the absence of oxygen
- 04:24will actually reduce the amount
- 04:25of oxidation. And, of course,
- 04:26oxygen causes rust
- 04:28and and damage to other,
- 04:31molecules. And, of course, that
- 04:33individual was thinking only chemically,
- 04:35not thinking biologically.
- 04:37So we went on to
- 04:38test this hypothesis,
- 04:40and and this is some
- 04:41older data. And the first
- 04:42dataset here is a a
- 04:44table in which we grew,
- 04:46tumor cells
- 04:48that had a specialized mutation
- 04:50reporter,
- 04:51and we grew them either
- 04:52cells in culture or we
- 04:54use them to form tumors
- 04:55in mice. And And what
- 04:56we consistently saw was the
- 04:58frequency of
- 05:00mutations was higher when the
- 05:01cells were grown as tumors.
- 05:04Then we went on to
- 05:05to study, well, what's the
- 05:06underlying mechanism? First of all,
- 05:08we showed that if you
- 05:09put those cells in hypoxia,
- 05:11you could recapitulate the mutagenesis.
- 05:13So that linked that effect
- 05:15to hypoxia.
- 05:16And we subsequently showed that
- 05:17if you had a damaged
- 05:18plasmid
- 05:20and introduced it into cells
- 05:21that were either normoxic or
- 05:22hypoxic,
- 05:23there was better repair
- 05:25or lesser repair of the
- 05:27damaged plasmid and the hypoxic
- 05:29cells.
- 05:30And this work was, carried
- 05:32out predominantly by Jenling Wan,
- 05:33who's now a faculty member
- 05:35at University
- 05:36of Minnesota in radiation oncology.
- 05:41So then,
- 05:42we went on, to
- 05:45oh, I'm sorry. I skipped
- 05:47one. So thinking about,
- 05:49what we saw in those
- 05:50experiments, we noticed that the
- 05:51pattern of mutations
- 05:53had a fair proportion of
- 05:56changes within repeated sequences, which
- 05:59would be,
- 06:01indicative of a mismatch repair
- 06:02deficiency. So we took a
- 06:04candidate approach and looked at
- 06:05DNA mismatch repair gene expression.
- 06:08And,
- 06:10what you can see here
- 06:11is that in the in
- 06:12the mismatch repair pathway, which
- 06:14involves,
- 06:16proteins, MSH two and MSH
- 06:18six recognizing a mismatch, and
- 06:20then MLH one and PMS
- 06:21two coming on to mediate
- 06:24of downstream effects and steps
- 06:26and repair.
- 06:27The MLH one and PMS
- 06:28two proteins were, decreased in
- 06:31expression levels and hypoxia,
- 06:33and that correlated when we,
- 06:35put in a specific sequence
- 06:37repeated sequence that we could
- 06:38probe for mutation.
- 06:40The frequency mutations was increased
- 06:42in that sequence. So that
- 06:44was the first
- 06:45demonstration on a biological level
- 06:47that there was a repair
- 06:48pathway that was diminished
- 06:50in hypoxic cells.
- 06:52Then we took
- 06:54a a nonbiased approach and
- 06:56did a gene array analysis
- 06:57of,
- 06:59DNA repair expression and hypoxia,
- 07:01and you may see two
- 07:02familiar faces here, Ran, Ranjit,
- 07:05Bindru, who everyone knows, and
- 07:06Susan
- 07:07Gable, who was then Susan
- 07:08Scanlon, both MD PhD students
- 07:10in the lab and now
- 07:11on our faculty here in
- 07:12radiation oncology. And they did
- 07:15some,
- 07:16seminal work in which they
- 07:17looked at the expression
- 07:19of genes that we identified
- 07:20in that screen,
- 07:22including Rad fifty one, BRCA
- 07:24one, and FANC t two
- 07:25in the Fanconi anemia pathway.
- 07:27So Rad fifty one and
- 07:28BRCA one are in the
- 07:29homology dependent repair pathway.
- 07:31And you can see here
- 07:33on, a western blot that
- 07:35Rad fifty one is diminished
- 07:36in the hypoxic component,
- 07:38whereas HIF one as a
- 07:40control is increased.
- 07:42And then here on a
- 07:42northern blot,
- 07:44which people hardly do anymore,
- 07:45BRCA one is decreased in
- 07:47hypoxia, whereas VEGF RNA is
- 07:50increased.
- 07:51And, interestingly, on a western
- 07:53blot, you can see the
- 07:54BRCA one is down. But
- 07:55if you look here closely,
- 07:57you'll see the the protein
- 07:58has actually shifted a little
- 08:00bit up on the, gel
- 08:02mobility, and that has to
- 08:03do with post translational modification
- 08:06in in response to hypoxia.
- 08:08And the same is true
- 08:09with Fanconi anemia.
- 08:10And you see here that,
- 08:11the FANC t two expression
- 08:13is down, and, actually, there's
- 08:15an increase in the second
- 08:16band, which
- 08:17represents ubiquitination.
- 08:21So what is the mechanism?
- 08:22So it turns out that
- 08:23many of these repair genes
- 08:26have common elements in their
- 08:27promoters that respond to the
- 08:29e two f family of
- 08:30transcription factors.
- 08:32And, these factors interact with
- 08:35the pocket proteins that are
- 08:36related to retinoblastoma
- 08:38protein, p one thirty, p
- 08:39one zero seven, and p
- 08:41r b. They form heterodimers
- 08:43that regulate these promoter sites.
- 08:45And what we found is
- 08:46that in response to hypoxia,
- 08:48those pocket proteins become hypophosphorylated
- 08:51due to the activity
- 08:53of a phosphatase called PP
- 08:54two a. And this is
- 08:56a common theme throughout this
- 08:57talk that I'll return to,
- 08:59several times. And, basically, the
- 09:01mechanism is that hypoxia causes
- 09:04p one thirty or the
- 09:05p one zero seven or
- 09:06RB hypophosphorylation
- 09:08formation of e two f
- 09:10heterodimers, and these are repressive
- 09:12and cause the downregulation
- 09:14of DNA repair.
- 09:16We also found that hypoxia
- 09:18causes, changes in expression of
- 09:20microRNAs, and these lead to
- 09:22a cascade of events that
- 09:23regulate,
- 09:24DNA repair as well as
- 09:26adaptation to hypoxia
- 09:28on several levels.
- 09:29But I'm not going to,
- 09:31go into this further in
- 09:32in the talk. Just mention
- 09:34it for completeness.
- 09:36In addition
- 09:38to acute and chronic changes
- 09:40acute and short term changes
- 09:42in gene expression,
- 09:43Yuhang Liu in the lab
- 09:44has shown,
- 09:46that both BRCA one and
- 09:47MLH one become silenced with
- 09:50persistent hypoxia,
- 09:52due to a specific set
- 09:54of epigenetic,
- 09:55changes related to particular,
- 09:58histone,
- 09:59demethylases.
- 10:01And you can see here
- 10:02as an example, persistent downregulation
- 10:05of BRCA1 and prolonged hypoxia.
- 10:08So
- 10:09just
- 10:10an overview,
- 10:12you know, we found,
- 10:13that there are a number
- 10:14of changes in DNA repair
- 10:17pathways related to the hypoxia,
- 10:18but predominantly
- 10:20in the homology dependent repair
- 10:21or homologous recombination
- 10:23pathway
- 10:24and the mismatch repair pathway
- 10:25at the transcriptional,
- 10:27translational, and epigenetic
- 10:29level.
- 10:32And,
- 10:32in addition, I alluded to
- 10:34the fact that there is
- 10:35acute activation of DNA repair
- 10:37and hypoxia,
- 10:39and, this is transient.
- 10:41And you can see that,
- 10:43in response to acute hypoxia,
- 10:45you get activation of check
- 10:47two,
- 10:48which then leads to a
- 10:49phosphorylation
- 10:50of BRCA one. And, actually,
- 10:52as,
- 10:53we accumulated data, there's actually
- 10:54a network of signaling events
- 10:56that happens early in hypoxia
- 10:59followed by, down regulation
- 11:01of the DNA repair expression.
- 11:03So, initially, DNA damage response
- 11:05pathways are activated
- 11:07and then transcriptionally
- 11:09suppressed and then eventually silenced
- 11:11if the hypoxia continues.
- 11:13So, this is basically a
- 11:15summary of a lot of
- 11:16work
- 11:17that shows a scale of
- 11:18time. And in minutes, you
- 11:20get these post translational modifications.
- 11:23But over time, you get
- 11:24suppression of DNA repair expression
- 11:26in specific pathways
- 11:28at the level of
- 11:30translation, transcription, and eventually epigenetic
- 11:33silencing.
- 11:34Now
- 11:35people sometimes
- 11:37ask me when I give
- 11:38these talks, why does this
- 11:40happen?
- 11:41Why would the cell do
- 11:42this? And, you wouldn't think
- 11:44that a a cancer cell
- 11:46that's,
- 11:47you know, looking to survive
- 11:49and and,
- 11:50overcome cancer therapy is interested
- 11:52in down regulating
- 11:54subsets of DNA repair pathways.
- 11:56Well, it turns out that
- 11:58one answer could be related
- 12:00to what people have been
- 12:01doing in the evolutionary biology
- 12:03and microbiology
- 12:04area
- 12:05for a number of years,
- 12:06and this has been, pioneered
- 12:08by Susan Rosenberg at Baylor.
- 12:10And what you see here
- 12:12is, a study where people
- 12:14isolated,
- 12:16e coli in the wild,
- 12:18a lot of different isolates,
- 12:20and then put them under
- 12:21stress. And the stresses could
- 12:23be starvation,
- 12:25in terms of what's in
- 12:26the agar plate as far
- 12:27as, nutrients.
- 12:29Could also be certain antibiotics
- 12:31that are not directly genotoxic.
- 12:34And what they found was
- 12:35an upregulation
- 12:36of a hypermutable
- 12:37state in the E. Coli
- 12:39that increased their ability to
- 12:41evolve and adapt to the
- 12:43stressful environment.
- 12:45And, interestingly,
- 12:46as they started to do
- 12:47the molecular,
- 12:49studies,
- 12:50one of the pathways downregulated
- 12:51in e coli is mismatch
- 12:53repair, and another one is,
- 12:55what they called upregulation of
- 12:57a mutagenic double strand break
- 12:59repair. But what actually happened
- 13:01is they suppressed the normal
- 13:02homologous recombination pathway, and you
- 13:05get an increase in,
- 13:07something similar to nonhomologous end
- 13:09joining. So very similar to
- 13:10what we saw in cancer
- 13:12cells.
- 13:14So
- 13:15if if we wanna look
- 13:16at a parallel, the hypoxia
- 13:18induced genetic instability
- 13:19mirrors what's been seen in
- 13:22e coli and other microorganisms.
- 13:24And and in a way,
- 13:25you could consider cancer
- 13:27as a population of unicellular
- 13:29organisms under stress.
- 13:32Okay. So
- 13:34that's the biology, but now
- 13:35can we exploit it for
- 13:37cancer therapy?
- 13:38So this is work that
- 13:39Denise Heakin in the lab
- 13:40did where she was the
- 13:41first, one to show that
- 13:43hypoxic cells are sensitive
- 13:45to an inhibitor of the,
- 13:47DNA repair enzyme poly ADP
- 13:49ribose polymerase or PARP. Many
- 13:51of you know will know
- 13:52that PARP inhibitors are used
- 13:54in the clinic now for
- 13:55cancers deficient in BRCA one
- 13:56and BRCA
- 13:58two because they are synthetically
- 14:00lethal to,
- 14:01cells deficient hematology dependent repair.
- 14:04And, of course, I I
- 14:06showed you when I show
- 14:07show again here that, hypoxia
- 14:09causes a downregulation
- 14:10of the BRCA pathway,
- 14:12and so those cells are
- 14:13sensitive to PARP inhibitors.
- 14:16So so then,
- 14:18an MD PhD student in
- 14:19the lab, Alana Kaplan, came
- 14:21and we said,
- 14:22can we exploit that biology
- 14:24for cancer therapy in a
- 14:25pharmacologic
- 14:26way?
- 14:27And our thinking was we
- 14:28would use an angiogenesis
- 14:30inhibitor called cediranib,
- 14:33and it's shown here on
- 14:34the upper right, for those
- 14:36of you who are chemically
- 14:37inclined. And it's a small
- 14:39molecule receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor
- 14:42that was designed to inhibit
- 14:43the VEGF receptor, but, actually,
- 14:45it it inhibits multiple
- 14:47receptor tyrosine kinase,
- 14:50receptor tyrosine kinases,
- 14:54not just the the VEGF
- 14:55receptor.
- 14:56So we we asked, could
- 14:57we use
- 14:58cediranib
- 14:59to cause hypoxia in cancer
- 15:02in tumors and then exploit
- 15:04it? So what Alana did
- 15:06was, treat, we set up
- 15:08tumors in mice, and we
- 15:10treated the mice with cediranib.
- 15:12Then we isolated cells
- 15:14from the tumors, and this
- 15:15says mouse depletion because it's
- 15:17a human tumor. We deplete
- 15:18the mouse cells, and then
- 15:19we isolate the tumor cells.
- 15:22And,
- 15:23you can actually stain them
- 15:24with carbonic anhydra for carbonic
- 15:26anhydrase nine because it's a
- 15:28marker of hypoxia.
- 15:29And in fact, we saw
- 15:30that there was an increase
- 15:32in the hypoxic fraction in
- 15:33this experimental system from twenty
- 15:35to about thirty percent.
- 15:38So we took these cells
- 15:39and we looked at, expression
- 15:41of, rec the DNA repair
- 15:43genes in the HDR pathway,
- 15:45and we actually saw pretty
- 15:46good downregulation.
- 15:47In fact, we saw downregulation
- 15:49that was too good in
- 15:51the sense that it was
- 15:52more than you would expect
- 15:53from that
- 15:55smaller change in the hypoxic
- 15:57fraction.
- 15:58So it was clear that
- 15:59maybe something else was going
- 16:00on.
- 16:02So,
- 16:03what Alana did was we
- 16:04repeated that experiment
- 16:06using that CA nine marker.
- 16:07But instead of just
- 16:09counting those, we actually sorted
- 16:11them, and we collected the
- 16:13normoxic fraction and the hypoxic
- 16:15fraction. And what I'm showing
- 16:16you here is the normoxic
- 16:18fraction. And even in the
- 16:19normoxic fraction,
- 16:22homology dependent repair genes were
- 16:24downregulated, and that was the
- 16:25unexpected result.
- 16:27So what was going on?
- 16:29Well, actually
- 16:31so we then looked at
- 16:32some of the nonmalignant tissues
- 16:34in the mice, and we
- 16:35did not see downregulation. So
- 16:37it was only happening in
- 16:38the tumor.
- 16:39So we looked at bone
- 16:40marrow, liver, lung, and mammary
- 16:42fat pad.
- 16:43And just
- 16:45a little more of a
- 16:46survey, we looked at, some
- 16:48other DNA repair factors, and
- 16:49these are in the nonhomologous
- 16:51end joining pathway,
- 16:52which we already knew from
- 16:53our hypoxia work
- 16:55is that pathway is not
- 16:57affected, and it was also
- 16:59not affected by sedarinib.
- 17:01In,
- 17:02but, also,
- 17:03in this, slide, I'm showing
- 17:05you results of,
- 17:07treatment of cells and culture
- 17:09with sedarinib
- 17:10where you cannot generate hypoxia
- 17:12because there's no vasculature or
- 17:14angiogenesis.
- 17:15This is a direct effect
- 17:16of sedarinib,
- 17:17and you can see that
- 17:18those pathways are downregulated,
- 17:21directly by cediranib. But interestingly,
- 17:24in,
- 17:25bone marrow, CD thirty four
- 17:27positive stem cells, we do
- 17:28not see the same, downregulation.
- 17:32So that is consistent with
- 17:33what we had seen in
- 17:34vivo.
- 17:36Now, functionally, if we look
- 17:38at cells treated with cediranib
- 17:39and then treat them with
- 17:40radiation
- 17:41and and compare them to
- 17:43controls, we see a functional
- 17:44decrease in,
- 17:46DNA repair capacity.
- 17:48And you can see here
- 17:49that,
- 17:50in normal cells, you will
- 17:51see foci of a Rad
- 17:53fifty one coalescing
- 17:55to repair double strand breaks.
- 17:57But in cells treated with
- 17:58cediranib,
- 18:00there is substantially fewer
- 18:02foci indicating that,
- 18:04that pathway has been suppressed.
- 18:07Similarly, if we do an
- 18:09assay looking for,
- 18:11homologous recombination
- 18:12between two fragments of the
- 18:13GFP gene,
- 18:15one of which is cut
- 18:16by an enzyme that can
- 18:17be induced in the cells,
- 18:19we can see that in
- 18:20the presence of cediranib, that
- 18:22recombination
- 18:23event is substantially suppressed and
- 18:25to a similar extent as
- 18:26what you would see if
- 18:27you knock down Radka one
- 18:29or Rad fifty one. But
- 18:31as controls, there's no effect
- 18:33in knocking down the nonhomologous
- 18:35end joining pathway
- 18:36proteins, Kuwaiti and XLF.
- 18:39Now we then return to
- 18:41what Denise had observed in
- 18:43hypoxic cells, and we said,
- 18:44okay.
- 18:45Does siderinib sensitize to a
- 18:47PARP inhibitor? And here's
- 18:49the example that shows,
- 18:51in the in the presence
- 18:52of, cediranib,
- 18:54there is increased sensitivity to
- 18:56elaparib, a commonly used
- 18:58PARP inhibitor in the clinic.
- 19:00So this is a survival
- 19:01current curve on the left,
- 19:03and this is example of
- 19:05molecular markers of, cell death
- 19:07and apoptosis on the right.
- 19:10So what this,
- 19:12data
- 19:13these data show is that
- 19:14cediranib treatment phenocopies the BRCA
- 19:16deficiency
- 19:18and creates a synthetic lethality
- 19:20to PARP inhibitors.
- 19:22Now what's what's the mechanism
- 19:24here? So,
- 19:26I'm not showing you all
- 19:27the data, but one that's
- 19:28particularly striking is we used
- 19:31the papillomavirus
- 19:32e seven protein that doctor
- 19:34DeMeo will be very familiar
- 19:35with. And the e seven
- 19:36protein
- 19:38was known for a long
- 19:39time to interact with the
- 19:40RB family of proteins
- 19:42and cause their degradation and
- 19:44prevent their interaction with the
- 19:46e two f factors.
- 19:47So when we express
- 19:49e seven,
- 19:52we see that there is,
- 19:56abrogation of the sensitivity
- 19:58of sedarinib treated cells to
- 20:01olaparib.
- 20:02So this is one piece
- 20:03of evidence that supports that
- 20:06the downregulation is happening by
- 20:08the same method as happens
- 20:09in hypoxia
- 20:10that is through the,
- 20:12r b e two f
- 20:14family of pro of proteins.
- 20:16And so
- 20:17our conclusion of them, mechanistically,
- 20:19is suderninib has two effects
- 20:21on DNA repair. One is
- 20:23through hypoxia, which was our
- 20:24original
- 20:25hypothesis,
- 20:26and the other one is
- 20:27a direct one through its
- 20:29receptor tyrosine kinase inhibition
- 20:33effects. And and in these
- 20:35particular ovarian cancer cells, we
- 20:37linked it to the platelet
- 20:39derived growth factor receptor.
- 20:42That leads to an upregulation
- 20:44of phosphatase two a
- 20:46and, changes in the
- 20:49phosphorylation of the pocket proteins
- 20:51and that cascade that leads
- 20:53to suppression of repair capacity.
- 20:57So then we took this
- 20:58into an in vivo model
- 21:00in, mice
- 21:02in which we form tumors
- 21:03from those of one of
- 21:04those ovarian cancer cell lines.
- 21:06And,
- 21:07this is the tumor growth
- 21:08suppression curve,
- 21:10and the control or olaparib
- 21:12alone are similar.
- 21:13Sediranib has some effect, but
- 21:15now the combined
- 21:17olaparib and siderinib has the
- 21:19most growth suppression,
- 21:20and that's correlated with an
- 21:22increase in survival.
- 21:24Now when I,
- 21:26first presented this,
- 21:27at a meeting,
- 21:29I I subsequently was contacted
- 21:31by two fairly large pharmaceutical
- 21:34companies.
- 21:35One said, oh, gee. We
- 21:38reproduce that, and we're actually
- 21:39working on,
- 21:41an even better version of
- 21:43cediranib, and we'd like to
- 21:44come talk to you about
- 21:45that.
- 21:47The other one
- 21:48said, oh, well, we can't
- 21:49reproduce what you did, and,
- 21:51actually,
- 21:52we don't like, that in
- 21:54vivo model.
- 21:56We prefer a different one
- 21:57that we don't think that
- 21:58one is,
- 22:00a good one.
- 22:01So, thankfully,
- 22:04Joseph Kim, who I see
- 22:05in the audience here,
- 22:08decided to try a different
- 22:10in vivo model,
- 22:12and that one is called
- 22:13patients in the clinic.
- 22:15And and in his work,
- 22:17reported,
- 22:18in, JCO,
- 22:21he did a trial in,
- 22:22patients with metastatic prostate cancer
- 22:25combining,
- 22:26cidernib and olaparib and saw
- 22:28positive results.
- 22:32So
- 22:33what about other repair pathways?
- 22:35Well, it turns out that,
- 22:37like I said, nonamog is
- 22:39end joining, which you can
- 22:40see here on the left
- 22:41on the right. This is
- 22:42a,
- 22:44heat map of gene expression
- 22:45where blue is down
- 22:47and nonbluer red is up.
- 22:49You can see nonhomologous end
- 22:50joining is not suppressed,
- 22:54but we do see the
- 22:55suppression of,
- 22:56HDR in a different,
- 22:59cancer type, in this case,
- 23:00lung cancer.
- 23:01And we also see some
- 23:03synthetic lethality induced
- 23:05to alaparib in this lung
- 23:07cancer line HCC
- 23:08eight two seven.
- 23:11And then Denise,
- 23:13also looked at,
- 23:15DNA mismatch repair in a
- 23:17series of cancer cell lines
- 23:18as shown here in the
- 23:19middle panel, lung cancer, ovarian,
- 23:22and a glioblastoma.
- 23:23And in this case, DNA
- 23:25mismatch repair as it is
- 23:26in hypoxia is suppressed in
- 23:28response to,
- 23:30sedarinib. And, this is the
- 23:32heat map, and you can
- 23:33see some western blots on
- 23:35the right.
- 23:37Okay.
- 23:38So,
- 23:39at this point,
- 23:41Gary Outwerger, who is a,
- 23:44assistant professor in the GYN
- 23:45oncology,
- 23:47department,
- 23:48here, joined the lab with
- 23:50an interest in uterine serous
- 23:52cancer.
- 23:53And so we knew that
- 23:55siderinib caused a decrease in
- 23:57DNA repair gene expression in
- 23:59specific pathways.
- 24:01But,
- 24:01what impact might it have
- 24:03in uterine cancer?
- 24:05And could there be a
- 24:05role for sudaredim in combination
- 24:08with any DNA repair inhibitors
- 24:09or cell cycle regulators
- 24:11in uterine cancer? And part
- 24:13of the reason we were
- 24:14interested in this is that,
- 24:17there's a fair proportion of
- 24:18uterine cancers that are deficient
- 24:20in DNA mismatch repair.
- 24:22And the ones that are
- 24:23deficient in MMR have a
- 24:25better better natural history and
- 24:27also
- 24:28respond better
- 24:30to immune checkpoint inhibitors.
- 24:33So,
- 24:34Gary went ahead and and
- 24:36surveyed some uterine, cancer,
- 24:38lines that we got from
- 24:39Alessandro
- 24:40Santin here in the GYNOC
- 24:42department. And what he saw
- 24:44was that in the ARC
- 24:45one,
- 24:46on the left and and
- 24:46the HEK one b on
- 24:47the right,
- 24:49the mismatch repair factors
- 24:51were suppressed in response to
- 24:52sudernib at different levels of
- 24:54sensitivity.
- 24:55Interestingly, this ARC four cell
- 24:57line did not show an
- 24:58effect to sudernib alone.
- 25:03We then tested the functional
- 25:04effect on mismatch repair using
- 25:06a reporter system in which
- 25:08a dinucleotide
- 25:09repeat is inserted at the
- 25:11beginning of the reading frame
- 25:13for the green fluorescent protein,
- 25:15and and it's,
- 25:16set up so it's out
- 25:18of frame, so there is
- 25:19no green in the cells.
- 25:20But if there's a mismatch
- 25:22repair deficiency leading to a
- 25:24frame shift, you will see
- 25:25green cells.
- 25:26And so what you see
- 25:27here on the right is
- 25:28this reporter was put into
- 25:30those cell lines. They were
- 25:32treated or not with siderinib,
- 25:33and you can see that
- 25:34there's an increase in the
- 25:36GFP positive fraction after siderinib
- 25:39treatment, notably in the ARC
- 25:41one and the HEK one
- 25:42b
- 25:42and a tiny one in
- 25:44the ARC four.
- 25:47Now
- 25:48having seen this functional decrease,
- 25:50we wondered how could we
- 25:52exploit this?
- 25:54Now we knew that,
- 25:55you know, olaparib was was
- 25:57not known to synergize with
- 26:00mismatch repair deficiencies. So we
- 26:03we,
- 26:04hypothesized that maybe an inhibitor
- 26:07of a cell cycle checkpoint,
- 26:09namely,
- 26:10we one inhibitor might
- 26:12have some combination effect
- 26:15because mismatch repair causes replication
- 26:17stress,
- 26:19on multiple levels.
- 26:20And we we one is
- 26:22a a checkpoint protein that
- 26:24regulates,
- 26:25cell cycle progression at multiple
- 26:27points in the cell cycle
- 26:28as illustrated here, intra s,
- 26:30g two m, and mitotic
- 26:32exit.
- 26:33So we thought there potentially
- 26:35could be an opportunity,
- 26:37for a combined effect.
- 26:39So, Gary went ahead and
- 26:40did a study to look
- 26:42for synergism. And and for
- 26:44those of you not familiar,
- 26:45this is, of cell viability
- 26:47assay where different doses of
- 26:49one agent are on one
- 26:51axis and doses of another
- 26:53on the other. And where
- 26:55you see,
- 26:56hills that are blue
- 26:58are dose combinations where there's
- 27:00statistical evidence for synergism.
- 27:02So in all three cell
- 27:03lines, we saw that these
- 27:04two
- 27:05agents, one cediranib and and
- 27:07a v one inhibitor,
- 27:09which in the slides we
- 27:11mostly call m MK seventeen
- 27:13seventy five or atadavosertib,
- 27:17showed, good synergism.
- 27:20Now,
- 27:21interestingly, the arc four cells
- 27:22had not shown a decrease
- 27:24in mismatch repair
- 27:25gene expression by sediranibalone.
- 27:28But if you can see
- 27:29it here, when we treated
- 27:31them with the combination,
- 27:33we actually saw that there
- 27:34was strong suppression of, DNA
- 27:37mismatch repair expression,
- 27:38which you could measure in,
- 27:40by the increase in, cells,
- 27:43showing GFP expression using that
- 27:45reporter vector that is visualized
- 27:47here and quantified on the
- 27:49right. The same is true
- 27:50on the HEK1 b cells.
- 27:54So what might be going
- 27:55on? Well, it turns out
- 27:57that
- 27:58just like,
- 27:59the BRCA
- 28:00and Rad fifty one promoters,
- 28:02the mismatch repair gene promoters
- 28:04can also respond to e
- 28:05two f and pocket protein,
- 28:08transcription factor complexes.
- 28:10And when we looked at
- 28:12retinoblastoma
- 28:13phosphorylation,
- 28:14we could see that,
- 28:16the we one inhibitor and
- 28:18cediranib
- 28:19synergized to
- 28:21increase the hypophosphorylation
- 28:23or decrease the phosphorylation of
- 28:25r v RB,
- 28:26which creates
- 28:28the repressive
- 28:29complex
- 28:29that then acts on
- 28:33the DNA repair gene promoters.
- 28:35So that was
- 28:37one step in the mechanism.
- 28:39But
- 28:40we wondered, well, why is
- 28:41there synergistic
- 28:43killing?
- 28:45So,
- 28:46we got a clue from
- 28:47the literature.
- 28:49There is a,
- 28:52a group, now at, University
- 28:54of Texas Southwestern led by
- 28:55Guomin Lee who published,
- 28:58this, very interesting paper. Excuse
- 29:00me. I'm just
- 29:02gonna get a little water.
- 29:04Where he looked at
- 29:05MLH one deficiency and its
- 29:07effect on the c gasping
- 29:09pathway.
- 29:13And what he found was
- 29:14when you knock down m
- 29:16l h one,
- 29:17you get an increase in
- 29:19c gas sting signaling in
- 29:21the innate immune,
- 29:23pathway.
- 29:25And his model was that,
- 29:28it's known that MLH one
- 29:31interacts with a exonuclease
- 29:33called XO one. And this
- 29:34is involved in DNA mismatch
- 29:36repair, but also plays a
- 29:37secondary role in end resection
- 29:40during homologous recombination.
- 29:42When MLH one is knocked
- 29:44down,
- 29:45XO one is unleashed
- 29:48and could can
- 29:50mediate,
- 29:52basically dysregulated
- 29:57exonuclease
- 29:58activity on DNA ends,
- 30:00creating,
- 30:01DNA fragments and long single
- 30:03stranded gaps.
- 30:04And what, he's,
- 30:06they showed in this paper
- 30:07is that DNA then gets
- 30:09released into the cytoplasm
- 30:12and can activate the c
- 30:13gas sting pathway, which is
- 30:15the sensor of
- 30:17chromosomal DNA and micronuclei
- 30:19and other DNA, type fragments
- 30:22in the
- 30:23cytoplasm.
- 30:24So the idea
- 30:26is mismatch repair deficiency,
- 30:28too much x o one
- 30:29activity,
- 30:30and then activation of stigast
- 30:32deng. And one way to
- 30:33score that is,
- 30:34the stat one transcription factor
- 30:37factor gets phosphorylated.
- 30:38It's an easy marker of
- 30:39activation of that innate signaling
- 30:41pathway.
- 30:43So we went ahead and
- 30:44looked at that,
- 30:46and we found, in fact,
- 30:48that stat phosphostat
- 30:49one was strongly induced
- 30:52by the combination of cediranib
- 30:54and the wee one inhibitor
- 30:55as shown here,
- 30:57and quantified its its, you
- 30:59know, roughly,
- 31:01ninety fold increase, which is
- 31:03quite striking.
- 31:05And,
- 31:06we were fortunate
- 31:08because,
- 31:10Gary is on a k
- 31:11award with the women's health
- 31:12research
- 31:13program here run by Vicky
- 31:16Abrams and, Yu Taylor.
- 31:18And on his mentoring committee
- 31:19was Akiko Iwasaki
- 31:21who saw this data. And,
- 31:22actually, I had had the
- 31:24privilege of working with Akiko
- 31:25on a paper which reported
- 31:28that ataxia telangiectasia
- 31:31ATM
- 31:32mutated mice,
- 31:34which have,
- 31:36a,
- 31:38our ATM is known to
- 31:40have cerebellar degeneration as one
- 31:42of its phenotypes,
- 31:47linked the ATM deficiency to
- 31:49hyperactivation
- 31:50of line one leading to
- 31:52neurodegeneration.
- 31:53So Akiko said, well, that
- 31:55strong induction of innate immune
- 31:57signaling,
- 31:58that might be related to
- 31:59line one. So we went
- 32:00ahead and looked into that.
- 32:02Now what is line one?
- 32:04It's the long interspersed nuclear
- 32:05elements, which are the, the
- 32:08most common,
- 32:09retro element in the human
- 32:11genome. Most of them are
- 32:12silenced, but some
- 32:14can be expressed.
- 32:16And, here's a diagram of
- 32:18the locus, and it encodes
- 32:19two open reading frames, ORF
- 32:21one and ORF two. ORF
- 32:22two is a reverse transcriptase.
- 32:25And when it when it
- 32:26becomes activated by transcription followed
- 32:28by reverse transcription, it's linked
- 32:30to genomic instability.
- 32:33And and line one cDNA
- 32:35in the cytoplasm is known
- 32:37to activate c gas sting.
- 32:39And, actually, this is sort
- 32:40of a life cycle of
- 32:41the line one elements. And
- 32:43the key thing here is
- 32:45if you can see, you
- 32:46get expression of line one,
- 32:48RNA,
- 32:49and it gets,
- 32:52turned into,
- 32:54cDNA in the,
- 32:57here in the cytoplasm and
- 32:59that activates the c gas
- 33:00sting pathway. No. It can
- 33:02also go back into the
- 33:03nucleus and then reinsert
- 33:05and be another cause of
- 33:06genetic instability.
- 33:09So our hypothesis
- 33:12was that there was
- 33:14suppression of MLH one leading
- 33:16to dysregulated
- 33:17x o one
- 33:19that could lead to line
- 33:20one induction
- 33:21and cDNA production and then
- 33:24activate,
- 33:25c gas sting as line
- 33:27one is cDNA is known
- 33:28to do.
- 33:29So we looked again at,
- 33:31the uterine cancer cell lines,
- 33:33and we saw line one
- 33:35is activated, increased. So this
- 33:37is a western blot for
- 33:38line one open reading frame
- 33:39one, ORF one, is increased.
- 33:42And that correlates with our
- 33:43increase in phosphostat one as
- 33:46seen by western blot in
- 33:47the combination of,
- 33:49cediranib
- 33:50and the w one inhibitor
- 33:52in both ARC four and
- 33:53the HEK one b cell
- 33:54lines.
- 33:55So
- 33:56this is fitting our model
- 33:58that,
- 33:59you get
- 34:00a decreased mismatch of pair
- 34:02leading to line one and
- 34:03c gas sting,
- 34:04and stat phosphostat one.
- 34:07And so
- 34:08the hypothesis still is that
- 34:10exo one is playing a
- 34:11role.
- 34:13Okay.
- 34:14Now
- 34:14for one
- 34:16one part of this, we
- 34:17asked, okay. Is the line
- 34:19one cDNA causing the phosphostat
- 34:22one induction?
- 34:23And one way to test
- 34:24that is use a reverse
- 34:26transcriptase inhibitor called three t
- 34:28c.
- 34:29And this would block
- 34:31the production of the line
- 34:33one cDNA
- 34:34from the line one mRNA.
- 34:37So if you look here,
- 34:38this is,
- 34:39control. This is the combination
- 34:41of cediranib and the wee
- 34:42one inhibitor. MLH one is
- 34:44down.
- 34:45Line one is induced,
- 34:46and fostostat one is induced.
- 34:49Now if you add three
- 34:50t c,
- 34:51you see line one
- 34:54is suppressed back to baseline,
- 34:56and so is fostostat one.
- 34:58Now you can recapitulate
- 35:00that instead of doing the
- 35:01combination of cediranib and v
- 35:03one inhibitor. You acutely knock
- 35:05down MLH one with a
- 35:07s I r n a.
- 35:09You get induction of line
- 35:11one
- 35:12and phosphostat one. Now this
- 35:13part was seen by the
- 35:15Guoam and Li lab. What
- 35:16they hadn't realized was that
- 35:18line one might be playing
- 35:19a role.
- 35:21And this is blocked
- 35:23similarly to the case with
- 35:25the drugs
- 35:26by the reverse transcriptase.
- 35:29So it looked like this
- 35:29is a similar mechanism.
- 35:33Now we went on to
- 35:34test the role for x
- 35:35o one.
- 35:36And in this case, we
- 35:37used
- 35:40siRNA
- 35:40knockdown.
- 35:42So you see here,
- 35:43in this case, we're looking
- 35:44at the impact of acute
- 35:46MLH one knockdown.
- 35:48MLH one knockdown leads to
- 35:51actually a slight increase in
- 35:52levels of x o one,
- 35:54but also line one induction,
- 35:56phosphostat one induction as we
- 35:57saw before.
- 35:59But if you also knock
- 36:00down x o one,
- 36:02you see there's less line
- 36:04one induced and less phosphostat
- 36:06one.
- 36:07Then you you look at
- 36:08that in the setting of
- 36:09the combination of siderinib
- 36:11and the wee one inhibitor.
- 36:14So lipof lipofectamine
- 36:16is just the control for
- 36:17the s I r n
- 36:18a to x o one.
- 36:20And you see here that
- 36:22you get the induction of
- 36:23line one and stat one
- 36:25phosphostat one as we saw
- 36:26before with the combination of
- 36:27the drugs.
- 36:29But when you have knocked
- 36:31down x o one,
- 36:33it abrogates those increases.
- 36:35So you see here there's
- 36:36no induction of line one.
- 36:38In fact, it's below the
- 36:39baseline,
- 36:40and you suppress the induction
- 36:41of phosphostat one.
- 36:45Okay. So now we return
- 36:46to that synergistic killing,
- 36:49and I wanna caution that
- 36:50this is a
- 36:51preliminary result that we are
- 36:53trying to
- 36:54confirm.
- 36:56But it it fit the
- 36:57story so well I couldn't
- 36:58help but show it.
- 37:00And what you see here
- 37:01is that there is killing
- 37:02of the uterine cancer cells
- 37:04by the combination of sildernib
- 37:06and v one inhibitor. But
- 37:08when you add the reverse
- 37:10transcriptase to block the induction
- 37:11of line one, you rescue
- 37:13the cell killing.
- 37:17Now let's go back to
- 37:19an in vivo model.
- 37:22And so,
- 37:24what we did was we
- 37:25tested,
- 37:25whether this applied to a
- 37:28tumor model in mice, and
- 37:29we used the ARC four
- 37:30cells,
- 37:31in
- 37:33in as as a xenograft
- 37:34in nude mice.
- 37:35And you can see here,
- 37:36the blue is the control
- 37:38untreated.
- 37:39These are the two agents,
- 37:41independently,
- 37:43siderinib and, we one inhibitor.
- 37:45And here is the combination,
- 37:47which essentially completely suppressed tumor
- 37:50growth. And you can see
- 37:51an example at
- 37:53at at the time of
- 37:54sacrifice of the animals. There's
- 37:56basically scar tissue left in
- 37:57the combination treatment.
- 37:59And importantly, the mouse weights
- 38:01were stable and so were
- 38:03the blood counts. And this
- 38:04is important because these agents
- 38:06are known to effect,
- 38:08cause myelosuppression.
- 38:11And then we returned to
- 38:12mechanism,
- 38:13and we did immunohistochemistry
- 38:15on those tumors
- 38:17for line one
- 38:18open reading frame one expression.
- 38:20And you can see that
- 38:21in the combination treatment, there's
- 38:23an induction of line one
- 38:25expression
- 38:26consistent with, the model.
- 38:31Now I didn't forget about
- 38:32hypoxia, so we're a little
- 38:34bit back to the future.
- 38:35And it turns out Yuhang,
- 38:37who had done all that
- 38:38work on gene,
- 38:40silencing,
- 38:41has been looking at the
- 38:42innate immune signaling pathway because
- 38:44it turns out that there
- 38:46is some
- 38:47long term silencing of sting
- 38:49in hypoxic cells.
- 38:51But there's initially induction of
- 38:53phosphostat one. So so based
- 38:55on what, Gary had found,
- 38:57we looked at line one
- 38:58in hypoxia, and it turns
- 39:00out line one is induced
- 39:01in hypoxic cells.
- 39:03But that induction
- 39:05can be blocked by the
- 39:06three TC,
- 39:09reverse transcriptase,
- 39:11inhibitors. So more to come
- 39:12on that.
- 39:14So just in summary, what
- 39:16what I've told you is
- 39:17that hypoxia,
- 39:19drives changes in DNA repair
- 39:20and genome instability
- 39:22on multiple levels,
- 39:24that cediranib,
- 39:27phenocopies
- 39:27the effect of hypoxia
- 39:29on homology dependent repair and
- 39:30mismatch repair by engaging a
- 39:32similar signaling meth mechanism.
- 39:36That creates a synthetic lethality
- 39:38with PARP inhibitors that's that
- 39:39has been observed in a
- 39:41clinical trial.
- 39:43And,
- 39:44we have evidence that we
- 39:46won inhibition will synergize
- 39:48with siderinib
- 39:49to both suppress MLH one
- 39:51and activate line one
- 39:53and innate immune signaling,
- 39:55to,
- 39:56kill uterine cancer cells,
- 39:59presumably through immunogenic cell death,
- 40:01although that mechanism needs to
- 40:03be
- 40:04fleshed out.
- 40:06And,
- 40:08we have recent evidence that
- 40:09hypoxia also engages
- 40:12some of the same, pathways
- 40:14possibly through line one.
- 40:16So future directions are to
- 40:17dig a little deeper into
- 40:18this mechanism.
- 40:21As I said, I showed
- 40:22some old,
- 40:23material, but some new material,
- 40:25so this is all still
- 40:26a work in progress.
- 40:27We want to extend to
- 40:28other uterine cancer models and
- 40:30other cancer types,
- 40:32and, we would like to
- 40:33combine with an immune checkpoint
- 40:35inhibitor in a in an
- 40:36immune competent model.
- 40:38We we haven't done that
- 40:39because those were human,
- 40:41cancer lines,
- 40:43not syngeneic with the,
- 40:45immune competent mouse model. And
- 40:47we would like to test
- 40:49this combination in a clinical
- 40:51trial.
- 40:52So,
- 40:53I'll stop there and,
- 40:54happy to, take questions. Thank
- 40:57you.
- 41:08Tommy.
- 41:26Right.
- 41:31Right.
- 41:58So so we we haven't
- 42:00looked at that, but that's
- 42:01very interesting. So Tommy was
- 42:03asking about the fact that
- 42:04three t's I'll go back
- 42:06to the microphone.
- 42:07Three three t c is
- 42:09an antiviral.
- 42:10And,
- 42:12and so what what what
- 42:13is seen clinically
- 42:15that might be related to
- 42:16what we've seen? And, the
- 42:18answer is we don't know,
- 42:19but it's possible that, that
- 42:21could be affecting,
- 42:23response to therapies.
- 42:25The other interesting thing that
- 42:27Gary has proposed is whether
- 42:29three t c, if it
- 42:31in fact suppresses
- 42:33innate immune signaling and inflammation
- 42:35in mismatch repair deficiency,
- 42:38could be used as a
- 42:39chemo preventive
- 42:40for people with Lynch syndrome.
- 42:45And,
- 42:46you know, that remains to
- 42:48be determined, but I think
- 42:49it's something we would like
- 42:51to
- 42:51see if we could model
- 42:52in mice
- 42:53or even in people.
- 42:55Yeah.
- 43:18Right.
- 43:20Yeah. So we haven't looked
- 43:22at small cell lung and,
- 43:23of course, the Schlippet eleven
- 43:25plays a key role in
- 43:26our response,
- 43:28but that would be, you
- 43:29know, very interesting to look
- 43:30at.
- 43:32Yeah.
- 43:33Yeah.
- 43:41Yeah.
- 44:00Yeah. So,
- 44:02just to repeat that, the
- 44:03question has to do with
- 44:04have we you know, can
- 44:06we detect ORF two related
- 44:07to line one?
- 44:10I think as see, as
- 44:11a practical matter, the antibody
- 44:13to ORF one is a
- 44:14really good antibody, and so
- 44:15that's what almost everyone uses
- 44:16in the literature.
- 44:18And so,
- 44:19we haven't looked at ORF
- 44:21two. Or if we did,
- 44:22nobody showed me that data,
- 44:23so I don't think it
- 44:24worked.
- 44:25But, yeah, that's a good
- 44:27point. Now we have the
- 44:28indirect evidence that the reverse
- 44:30transcriptase inhibitor suppresses the,
- 44:33effect, which makes sense because
- 44:35we're looking for line one,
- 44:37but we don't we haven't
- 44:38directly measured or orf two.
- 44:41Yeah. Roy. Peter, I have
- 44:43a question about clinical trials.
- 44:44Actually, two questions.
- 44:46First, the trial of Jo
- 44:47Kim with the Sedernet.
- 44:49Looking at that curve, it
- 44:50looks like there was a
- 44:51positive PFS.
- 44:52So where did that trial
- 44:53go? Has it gone on
- 44:54to a further study? Did
- 44:56any of the molecular correlates
- 44:58confirm some of the, scientific
- 45:00advancements?
- 45:01Yeah. I I I gotta
- 45:02let Joe do it. He's
- 45:03sitting behind you so he
- 45:04can he can answer that.
- 45:11Data before our trials. So
- 45:13I did two trials. One
- 45:14was in prostate cancer and
- 45:15then the other was was
- 45:16in advanced
- 45:23which is shown here is
- 45:24our positive data. So, again,
- 45:25our our new hypothesis was
- 45:27that we'll be able to
- 45:28see the benefit
- 45:30involving, you know, the jawline
- 45:31or condition set up some
- 45:33of the HR g calculations.
- 45:35If you're told surprise, what
- 45:36we saw was actually we
- 45:37saw,
- 45:38most of our benefits in
- 45:39patients with HR proficiency. In
- 45:41other words, the patients with
- 45:42the mutations spread like for
- 45:44those without the mutation, we
- 45:45are able to it's the
- 45:46benefit of the combination. So,
- 45:47actually, our question become actually,
- 45:50whether
- 45:51the,
- 45:52you know, whether this actually
- 45:53prevents or delays the partner
- 45:55need to resist. From that
- 45:56one question to you is
- 45:58that based on what you
- 45:59have seen so far,
- 46:00whether the again, again, it's
- 46:02really a tough thing and
- 46:03losing agent. We do see
- 46:04this in patients
- 46:05like the manifest as, like,
- 46:06a bad the high blood
- 46:08pressure, the fatigue, similar to
- 46:10data, some of the losses
- 46:11there is. If, you know,
- 46:11we do have these adverse
- 46:12strong hypoxia inducing agents. Whether
- 46:14that actually plays a role
- 46:16in getting the vetting or
- 46:17delaying part of the little
- 46:19tests, that's one. And then
- 46:20just to kind of sort
- 46:21of highlight on the,
- 46:23small of the long range
- 46:24data, actually, we have seen
- 46:25we have to have image
- 46:26at half the output of
- 46:27CRM. We had to obtain
- 46:29that part as a scan
- 46:30before and after the same
- 46:31amount of activity directed image
- 46:33that I can see I
- 46:34used by the, CRM. And
- 46:36we actually,
- 46:37saw some early antigen activity
- 46:39in small alarm cancer. We
- 46:41saw about thirty percent response
- 46:43rate and then also in,
- 46:44non small alarm and
- 46:46also in the CNDC as
- 46:47well. In pancreas, we're not
- 46:48able to see,
- 46:50no, you know, benefits at
- 46:51all. So I'll just
- 46:53Yeah. So my question to
- 46:54you is whether
- 46:59Yeah. So that's very interesting,
- 47:01question. And I think what
- 47:03might be going on is
- 47:04that cediranib had has a
- 47:06a little bit of a
- 47:07broad based effect on a
- 47:09number of repair factors in
- 47:11the HDR pathway.
- 47:12So some of the tumors
- 47:14that might have, say, a
- 47:15BRCA deficiency,
- 47:18What sildernib also does is
- 47:20suppress RAD fifty one and
- 47:21some FANC b two and
- 47:23some other
- 47:24factors in the same pathway.
- 47:25So
- 47:26either
- 47:27one is that HDR
- 47:29deficiency occurs at different levels
- 47:31and the sildernib takes it
- 47:32down a little bit more.
- 47:33Or if there's been a
- 47:34reversion,
- 47:36for example, like in BRCA2,
- 47:37there's been some intragenic,
- 47:39deletions that cause a reversion
- 47:41in the phenotype.
- 47:42The siderinib can still suppress
- 47:44expression and cause
- 47:47further
- 47:47HDR deficiency.
- 47:49So it could be that
- 47:51that's the susceptible population where
- 47:53siderinib is gonna have its
- 47:54most effect.
- 47:58And for your other clinical
- 47:59trial with the pembrolizumab, which
- 48:01looks very interesting.
- 48:03I know you're waiting for
- 48:04more preclinical data, but, you
- 48:05know, that's gonna be very
- 48:06hard. The animal models are
- 48:07all good, but not so
- 48:08good. Right. What are the
- 48:09barriers that getting an IIT
- 48:11going? Is there a specific
- 48:12disease that might be best
- 48:14that anybody do in the
- 48:15phase one detector?
- 48:17Where where is that?
- 48:18Well,
- 48:19so I don't know if
- 48:21Gary's in the audience. He's
- 48:22probably in the OR.
- 48:23But he is looking to
- 48:25to do a,
- 48:27clinical trial in uterine.
- 48:29That's his you know, that's
- 48:31where this is leading for
- 48:32him. I think for
- 48:33other,
- 48:34disease,
- 48:35sites, for example,
- 48:37Eric and I were talking
- 48:38about breast.
- 48:39You know, we we need
- 48:40to survey,
- 48:42based on, you know, genetic
- 48:44characteristics of of different, tumor
- 48:46types
- 48:47where there's gonna be susceptibility
- 48:49because we know there's variation.
- 48:50So, for example, in breast,
- 48:52is it triple negative? Is
- 48:53it gonna be,
- 48:54you know, some other subtype?
- 48:56And the same is, you
- 48:57know, there is we have
- 48:59a hint of a difference
- 49:00in lung between the KRAS
- 49:01driven and the EGFR driven.
- 49:04So there's more to learn
- 49:06as far as what tells
- 49:07us
- 49:08that,
- 49:10you know,
- 49:11these strategies could work.
- 49:13And in fact, you know,
- 49:14Eric and I have briefly
- 49:15talked about, you know, sport
- 49:16projects. And I think
- 49:18something in a sport project
- 49:19could be care you know,
- 49:20trying to figure out what's
- 49:21subtype to take this into
- 49:23a trial and then do
- 49:24the trial.
- 49:26Yeah.
- 49:28Yeah.
- 49:42Yes. So we did do
- 49:44that, and that's in Alana's
- 49:46paper. We did a kind
- 49:47of a, I would say,
- 49:48medium sized scale screen.
- 49:50And and a fair number
- 49:52do the same thing, especially
- 49:54the ones that
- 49:55strongly inhibit PDGFR.
- 49:57So that's part of what
- 49:58led to our hypothesis
- 50:00of the pathway.
- 50:02So, you know, I can
- 50:04refer you to there's a
- 50:05table in the supplementary
- 50:06material that has couple hundred
- 50:09agents in it.
- 50:11Joe, you had a question.
- 50:14Add on to that PDGFR
- 50:16question.
- 50:17Just start I mean, it's
- 50:18great work and then about
- 50:20a while. Just start me.
- 50:20Have you looked at cells
- 50:21that over trust PDGFR, or
- 50:23are they did you get
- 50:24a bigger response or mention
- 50:26the p g f r?
- 50:26He he yeah. We we
- 50:27haven't done that, enough to
- 50:29say anything. We I mean,
- 50:29we we thought about doing
- 50:29that, and we did some
- 50:30knockout work and some overexpression
- 50:33work. So
- 50:39there is some correlation, but
- 50:40we haven't done a broad
- 50:41survey.
- 50:42And that, for example, could
- 50:43be something that could, you
- 50:45know, go into a project
- 50:46where we, you know, look
- 50:48at, you know, the cell
- 50:49you know, databases of cell
- 50:51cancer cell lines and things
- 50:52like that.
- 50:55Right. Right.