Abstract 5483: Investigating the role of the retinoblastoma protein in induction and maintenance of oncogene-induced cellular senescence in tumor suppression

Abstract

Abstract Oncogene-induced cellular senescence is a tumor suppressor response resulting in irreversible cell cycle exit, and is dependent on the p53 and RB pathways. Loss of p53 has recently been shown to allow re-entry of senescent cells into the cell cycle. The role of the RB1 protein in maintenance of the senescent state is less well studied. We investigated whether RB1 is necessary for the induction as well as the maintenance of oncogene-induced senescence, and we also evaluated whether RB1 activation is sufficient to induce and/or maintain senesce in the absence of a functional p53 pathway. Inactivation of RB1 prior to onset of senescence led to failure of senescence induction, with impaired cell cycle exit and failure to induce senescence markers. On the other hand, loss of RB1 after cells had already entered oncogene-induced senescence was able to reverse some features of the senescence phenotype, but did not result in successful cell division and accumulation. Interestingly, in the absence of p53, constitutively active RB1 was sufficient for cells to undergo oncogene-induced senescence, and effectively prevented colony formation. Finally, while p53 inactivation was sufficient for senescent cells to re-enter the cell cycle, constitutive activation of RB1 prevented cell cycle re-entry, even in the absence of p53. Our findings show that RB1 is necessary for both the induction and maintenance of oncogene-induced senescence, and that active RB is sufficient for senescence induction as well as its maintenance, both in the presence and absence of p53. These results have direct implications on targeting RB activation as a senescence-inducing approach in both p53 wild type and p53-defective premalignant and malignant tumors. Note: This abstract was not presented at the meeting. Citation Format: Mohamad Harajly, Hasan Zalzali, Farah Ghamloush, Raya H. Saab. Investigating the role of the retinoblastoma protein in induction and maintenance of oncogene-induced cellular senescence in tumor suppression [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 5483. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-5483