Abstract 5513: Targeting brain tumor initiating cells in atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumors: Aldehyde dehydrogenase inhibition with disulfiram

Abstract

Abstract Atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumors (AT/RT) are one of the most malignant pediatric brain tumors with a dismal prognosis. Cells with high aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) activity from brain tumors have a number of characteristics that are expected of brain tumor initiating cells (BTICs). This study aimed to evaluate the therapeutic potential of ALDH inhibition using disulfiram (DSF) against BTICs from AT/RT. Primary cultured BTICs from AT/RT were stained with Aldefluor and isolated by fluorescence activated cell sorting. Therapeutic effect of DSF against BTICs from AT/RT was confirmed using in vitro and in vivo studies. AT/RT showed high expression of ALDH. DSF significantly inhibited ALDH enzyme activity of AT/RT cells. DSF decreased self-renewal ability, cell viability, proliferation potential and induced apoptosis and cell cycle arrest on ALDH+ AT/RT cells. DSF showed more potent cytotoxic effect to ALDH+ AT/RT cells compared to standard anti-cancer agents including ifosfamide, carboplatin and etoposide. Importantly, DSF reduced metabolite (metabolism?) of ALDH+ AT/RT cells by increasing NAD+ ratio and regulating SIRT1, NF-κB, Lin28A/B and miRNA let-7g. Notably, treatment with DSF did not have considerable effect on the normal neural stem cells and fibroblasts. Animals in the DSF-treated group demonstrated a significant survival benefit (105 days of median survival in the DSF-treated group versus 91 days in the control group, p = 0.0219). Our study demonstrated the therapeutic potential of DSF against BTICs from AT/RT and suggested the possibility of ALDH inhibition for clinical application. Note: This abstract was not presented at the meeting. Citation Format: Seung Ah Choi, Jung Won Choi, Kyu-Chang Wang, Ji Hoon Phi, Ji Yeoun Lee, Yong Hwy Kim, Young-Hoon Kim, Sung-Hye Park, Seung-Ki Kim. Targeting brain tumor initiating cells in atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumors: Aldehyde dehydrogenase inhibition with disulfiram. [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 5513. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-5513