Abstract 4426: Tumor suppressive effects of wild-type Hras on oncogenic Kras-driven pancreatic tumorigenesis

Abstract

Abstract The RAS proteins are a group of small GTPases that can become constitutively activated by point mutations that are found in a quarter or more of all cancer patients, particularly in pancreatic cancer, in which over 90% of patients have an activating KRAS mutation. There are three well-characterized RAS protein family members: HRAS, NRAS, and KRAS, the latter of which is alternatively spliced at the C-terminus into two proteins, KRAS4A and KRAS4B. The RAS proteins are all nearly identical at their N-termini and core effector binding domains. However, they have divergent C-terminal membrane-binding regions that impart both different subcellular localization and subtle changes in signaling. While oncogenic RAS is well established to promote cancer, recent work has suggested that wild-type RAS proteins also participate in tumorigenesis. In this regard, we previously found that wild-type HRAS is activated downstream of oncogenic KRAS, which promoted tumor growth of human pancreatic cancer cell lines. To examine the role of wild-type Hras during de novo pancreatic tumor development, we tested whether knockout of the wild-type Hras gene altered tumorigenesis in oncogenic Kras-driven mice models of pancreatic cancer. Specifically, Hras homozygous null mice (Hras-/-) were crossed into a Pdx-Cre;LSL-KRasG12D/+ background in the absence or presence of an additional mutant p53 allele (Trp53R172H/+) to induce early and late pancreatic cancer, respectively. Surprisingly, loss of Hras led to an increase in early pancreatic lesions and reduced survival in the model of late disease. Since HRAS is activated downstream of oncogenic KRAS, and high oncogenic signaling can induce a senescent growth arrest, we tested and found that suppressing senescence by mutating both alleles of Trp53 ameliorated the survival difference between wild-type and null Hras mice. We thus hypothesize that wild-type Hras amplifies oncogenic Kras signaling, leading to the growth arrest of senescence and thereby inhibit early tumorigenesis. However, once senescence is suppressed later in tumorigenesis, wild-type RAS proteins instead promote more malignant phenotypes. Citation Format: Jamie D. Weyandt, Christopher M. Counter. Tumor suppressive effects of wild-type Hras on oncogenic Kras-driven pancreatic tumorigenesis. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 4426. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-4426