Abstract 2815: Antitumor activity of CDK4/6 inhibition in combination with radiation therapy on glioblastoma stem cells

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Abstract Almost 80% of glioblastoma tumors have alterations in the CNKN2A-CDK-Rb pathway. Cyclin dependent kinases 4 and 6 (CDK4/6) act as cell cycle regulators and have been recognized as therapeutic targets for glioblastoma (GBM). In the current study, we determined the antitumor activity of CDK4/6 inhibition (palbociclib and abemaciclib) alone and in combination with radiation on a panel of glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs). The GSCs were molecularly characterized using multiple ‘omimcs’ techniques and Western blots identified specific phospho- and total protein levels. Approximately 50% of cell lines have homozygous deletion of CDKN2A although CDK4 and CDK6 protein expression was significantly elevated in most of the GSCs. RB protein was constitutively phosphorylated in only a subset (45%): GSC11, GSC262, GSC231, GSC304 and GSC7-2. In our panel of GSCs, there were total of three cell lines with CDKN2A loss, RB phosphorylation and CDK4/6 overexpression (GSC262, GSC11 and GSC231). Our data showed that GSC262, GSC11, GSC231 (CDKN2A deletion, RB intact), GSC7-2 and GSC300 (CDKN2A WT, RB intact) were sensitive to CDK4/6 treatment (IC50 ≤ 1μM). CDK4/6 inhibitor treated GSCs showed G1 cell cycle arrest and decreased phospho-RB levels in GSC262 and GSC7-2 cells. We next determined whether CDK4/6 inhibition combined with radiation has additive or synergistic antitumor effect. A clonogenic assay demonstrated that neurosphere formation was significantly decreased by CDK4/6 inhibition in combination with radiation compared to either treatment in GSC262 (resistant to radiation treatment) or GSC7-2 (sensitive to radiation treatment) cell lines. The radiation resistant GSC (GSC262) treated with radiation and CDK4/6 inhibitor became sensitive to radiation therapy whereas radiation sensitive GSC (GSC7-2) had a significant decrease in colony formation compared to radiation alone. CDK4/6 combined with radiation increased γ-H2AX protein expression levels and decreased cyclin D1 protein expression in a time dependent manner compared to single drug treatment. These data indicate synergistic antitumor effects of CDK4/6 inhibition combined with radiation therapy in GSCs in vitro. Further investigation is ongoing to evaluate this combination therapy. Citation Format: Christopher Nguyen, Yuji Piao, Juan Emmanuel Martinez-Ledesma, Jianwen Dong, Soon Yeung Park, Roel Verhaak, Erik Sulman, John F. De Groot. Antitumor activity of CDK4/6 inhibition in combination with radiation therapy on glioblastoma stem cells. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 2815.