Faculty, Staff and Student Publications
Publication Date
8-30-2024
Journal
eLife
Abstract
Mutational activation of KRAS occurs commonly in lung carcinogenesis and, with the recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of covalent inhibitors of KRASG12C such as sotorasib or adagrasib, KRAS oncoproteins are important pharmacological targets in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, not all KRASG12C-driven NSCLCs respond to these inhibitors, and the emergence of drug resistance in those patients who do respond can be rapid and pleiotropic. Hence, based on a backbone of covalent inhibition of KRASG12C, efforts are underway to develop effective combination therapies. Here, we report that the inhibition of KRASG12C signaling increases autophagy in KRASG12C-expressing lung cancer cells. Moreover, the combination of DCC-3116, a selective ULK1/2 inhibitor, plus sotorasib displays cooperative/synergistic suppression of human KRASG12C-driven lung cancer cell proliferation in vitro and superior tumor control in vivo. Additionally, in genetically engineered mouse models of KRASG12C-driven NSCLC, inhibition of either KRASG12C or ULK1/2 decreases tumor burden and increases mouse survival. Consequently, these data suggest that ULK1/2-mediated autophagy is a pharmacologically actionable cytoprotective stress response to inhibition of KRASG12C in lung cancer.
Keywords
Animals, Female, Humans, Male, Mice, Antineoplastic Agents, Autophagy, Autophagy-Related Protein-1 Homolog, Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung, Cell Line, Tumor, Cell Proliferation, Disease Models, Animal, Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins, Lung Neoplasms, Piperazines, Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases, Proto-Oncogene Proteins p21(ras), Pyridines, Pyrimidines
Included in
Bioinformatics Commons, Biomedical Informatics Commons, Medical Sciences Commons, Oncology Commons, Pulmonology Commons, Respiratory Tract Diseases Commons
Comments
Supplementary Materials
Data Availability Statement
PMID: 39213022