A systematic molecular and pharmacologic evaluation of AKT inhibitors reveals new insight into their biological activity.
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Date
2020-08-18Author
Kostaras, E
Kaserer, T
Lazaro, G
Heuss, SF
Hussain, A
Casado, P
Hayes, A
Yandim, C
Palaskas, N
Yu, Y
Schwartz, B
Raynaud, F
Chung, Y-L
Cutillas, PR
Vivanco, I
Type
Journal Article
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
BACKGROUND: AKT, a critical effector of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signalling cascade, is an intensely pursued therapeutic target in oncology. Two distinct classes of AKT inhibitors have been in clinical development, ATP-competitive and allosteric. Class-specific differences in drug activity are likely the result of differential structural and conformational requirements governing efficient target binding, which ultimately determine isoform-specific potency, selectivity profiles and activity against clinically relevant AKT mutant variants. METHODS: We have carried out a systematic evaluation of clinical AKT inhibitors using in vitro pharmacology, molecular profiling and biochemical assays together with structural modelling to better understand the context of drug-specific and drug-class-specific cell-killing activity. RESULTS: Our data demonstrate clear differences between ATP-competitive and allosteric AKT inhibitors, including differential effects on non-catalytic activity as measured by a novel functional readout. Surprisingly, we found that some mutations can cause drug resistance in an isoform-selective manner despite high structural conservation across AKT isoforms. Finally, we have derived drug-class-specific phosphoproteomic signatures and used them to identify effective drug combinations. CONCLUSIONS: These findings illustrate the utility of individual AKT inhibitors, both as drugs and as chemical probes, and the benefit of AKT inhibitor pharmacological diversity in providing a repertoire of context-specific therapeutic options.
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Research team
Clinical Pharmacology & Trials (including Drug Metabolism & Pharmacokinetics Group)
Molecular Addictions
Systems and Precision Cancer Medicine
Language
eng
Date accepted
2020-04-24
License start date
2020-08
Citation
British journal of cancer, 2020, 123 (4), pp. 542 - 555
Publisher
SPRINGERNATURE