A phospho-proteomic study of cetuximab resistance in KRAS/NRAS/BRAFV600 wild-type colorectal cancer.
View/ Open
Date
2021-08-30Author
Georgiou, A
Stewart, A
Vlachogiannis, G
Pickard, L
Valeri, N
Cunningham, D
Whittaker, SR
Banerji, U
Type
Journal Article
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
PURPOSE: We hypothesised that plasticity in signal transduction may be a mechanism of drug resistance and tested this hypothesis in the setting of cetuximab resistance in patients with KRAS/NRAS/BRAFV600 wild-type colorectal cancer (CRC). METHODS: A multiplex antibody-based platform was used to study simultaneous changes in signal transduction of 55 phospho-proteins in 12 KRAS/NRAS/BRAFV600 wild-type CRC cell lines (6 cetuximab sensitive versus 6 cetuximab resistant) following 1 and 4 h in vitro cetuximab exposure. We validated our results in CRC patient samples (n = 4) using ex vivo exposure to cetuximab in KRAS/NRAS/BRAFV600 cells that were immunomagnetically separated from the serous effusions of patients with known cetuximab resistance. RESULTS: Differences in levels of phospho-proteins in cetuximab sensitive and resistant cell lines included reductions in phospho-RPS6 and phospho-PRAS40 in cetuximab sensitive, but not cetuximab resistant cell lines at 1 and 4 h, respectively. In addition, phospho-AKT levels were found to be elevated in 3/4 patient samples following ex vivo incubation with cetuximab for 1 h. We further explored these findings by studying the effects of combinations of cetuximab and two PI3K pathway inhibitors in 3 cetuximab resistant cell lines. The addition of PI3K pathway inhibitors to cetuximab led to a significantly higher reduction in colony formation capacity compared to cetuximab alone. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest activation of the PI3K pathway as a mechanism of cetuximab resistance in KRAS/NRAS/BRAFV600 wild-type CRC.
Collections
Subject
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Oncology
Cell Biology
Pathology
Colorectal cancer
Cetuximab
Proteomics
Phospho-proteomics
Signalling adaptations
Resistance mechanisms
1ST-LINE TREATMENT
IRINOTECAN
KRAS
INHIBITOR
RAS
FLUOROURACIL
CHEMOTHERAPY
LEUCOVORIN
IMPACT
Research team
Clinical Pharmacology – Adaptive Therapy
Medicine (RMH Smith Cunningham)
Gastrointestinal Cancer Biology and Genomics
Clinical Pharmacology – Adaptive Therapy
Medicine (RMH Smith Cunningham)
Gastrointestinal Cancer Biology and Genomics
Language
eng
Date accepted
2021-07-27
License start date
2021-08-30
Citation
CELLULAR ONCOLOGY, 2021, pp. ? - ? (10)
Publisher
SPRINGER