Abstract B27: Correlation between TNFα and LCL161 anti-tumor activity in patient derived xenograft models of human cancer

Abstract

Abstract LCL161, a small molecule antagonist of inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs), induces TNF -mediated apoptosis in a subset of tumor cell lines including the MDA-MB-231 breast cancer line. To investigate the in vivo activity of LCL161, MDA-MB-231 tumor bearing mice were treated with a once weekly oral dose. We observed anti-tumor activity that was associated with pharmacodynamic responses including degradation of CIAP1 and induction of cleaved caspase 3. The loss of CIAP1, specifically the E3 ligase activity of this protein, has been shown to directly impact the stability of a number of client proteins including NIK (NF-κB inducing kinase), Mad1 (MAX-binding protein), and others. Gene expression analysis on LCL161 treated MDA-MB-231 tumors revealed a striking upregulation of NF-κB regulated target genes. These data were further supported by the observation that TNFα, a direct target of NF-κB, was induced in LCL161 treated MDAMB-231 tumor lysates. To explore whether TNFα expression levels could be used to predict single agent efficacy in a more clinically relevant context, a series of human primary tumor xenografts were profiled for baseline TNFα mRNA levels and evaluated for response to LCL161 in vivo. We observed that tumors with the highest TNFα expression levels showed the greatest sensitivity to LCL161. These studies demonstrate an essential role of the NF-κB pathway in IAP antagonist anti-tumor activity. Ongoing efforts focus on delineating the contribution of the canonical and non-canonical NF-κB pathways to efficacy and on leveraging this mechanism for LCL161 patient selection. Citation Information: Mol Cancer Ther 2009;8(12 Suppl):B27.