Systematic molecular profiling of inhibitor response to the clinical missense mutations of ErbB family kinases in human gastric cancer

Abstract

The oncogenic receptor tyrosine kinase family ErbB consists of four members (ErbB1, ErbB2, ErbB3 and ErbB4); they are involved in the tumorgenesis of diverse cancers. A variety of missence mutations have been clinically observed in ErbB kinases, which would shift drug sensitivity to these kinases and cause drug resistance in targeted cancer therapy. In this study, systematic inhibitor response to ErbB missense mutations in gastric cancer (GC) is investigated by combining computational analysis and experimental assay. The response profile is created for 6 ATP-competitive, reversible inhibitors against 9, 17, 5 and 17 GC-associated missense mutations of ErbB1, ErbB2, ErbB3 and ErbB4 kinase domains, respectively. From the profile a number of potential resistant and sensitive responses are identified theoretically. It is suggested that most ErbB mutations have only a modest effect on inhibitor binding, but few that are located around the kinase active site can influence the binding significantly. Structural examination reveals that steric hindrance and allosteric effect are primarily responsible for inhibitor resistance and sensitivity, respectively. Two ErbB2 mutations, namely V777L and T862A, are predicted to cause effective resistance on inhibitors TAK285 and Lapatinib, respectively. Kinase assays consistently observe that the mutations can reduce inhibitor activity by 4.9-fold and 2.4-fold, with IC50 changing from 29 to 16 nM (wild type) to 83 and 39 nM (mutant) for TAK285 and Lapatinib, respectively.