Telomeres and Telomerase Group, Molecular Oncology Program, Spanish National Cancer Centre (CNIO), Madrid, Spain.
Experimental Therapeutics Program, Spanish National Cancer Centre (CNIO), Madrid, Spain.
EMBO Mol Med. 2019 Jul;11(7):e10292. doi: 10.15252/emmm.201910292. Epub 2019 Jun 13.
Telomeres are considered as universal anti-cancer targets, as telomere maintenance is essential to sustain indefinite cancer growth. Mutations in telomerase, the enzyme that maintains telomeres, are among the most frequently found in cancer. In addition, mutations in components of the telomere protective complex, or shelterin, are also found in familial and sporadic cancers. Most efforts to target telomeres have focused in telomerase inhibition; however, recent studies suggest that direct targeting of the shelterin complex could represent a more effective strategy. In particular, we recently showed that genetic deletion of the TRF1 essential shelterin protein impairs tumor growth in aggressive lung cancer and glioblastoma (GBM) mouse models by direct induction of telomere damage independently of telomere length. Here, we screen for TRF1 inhibitory drugs using a collection of FDA-approved drugs and drugs in clinical trials, which cover the majority of pathways included in the Reactome database. Among other targets, we find that inhibition of several kinases of the Ras pathway, including ERK and MEK, recapitulates the effects of Trf1 genetic deletion, including induction of telomeric DNA damage, telomere fragility, and inhibition of cancer stemness. We further show that both bRAF and ERK2 kinases phosphorylate TRF1 in vitro and that these modifications are essential for TRF1 location to telomeres in vivo. Finally, we use these new TRF1 regulatory pathways as the basis to discover novel drug combinations based on TRF1 inhibition, with the goal of effectively blocking potential resistance to individual drugs in patient-derived glioblastoma xenograft models.
端粒被认为是普遍的抗癌靶点,因为端粒的维持对于维持无限期的癌症生长是必不可少的。端粒酶维持端粒的酶的突变是癌症中最常见的突变之一。此外,端粒保护复合物或庇护体的成分的突变也在家族性和散发性癌症中发现。大多数靶向端粒的努力都集中在端粒酶抑制上;然而,最近的研究表明,直接靶向庇护体复合物可能代表一种更有效的策略。特别是,我们最近表明,通过直接诱导端粒损伤,而不依赖端粒长度,TRF1 必需庇护体蛋白的遗传缺失会损害侵袭性肺癌和神经胶质瘤(GBM)小鼠模型中的肿瘤生长。在这里,我们使用 FDA 批准的药物和临床试验中的药物的集合筛选 TRF1 抑制药物,这些药物涵盖了 Reactome 数据库中包含的大多数途径。除其他靶点外,我们发现几种 Ras 途径激酶(包括 ERK 和 MEK)的抑制剂可重现 Trf1 基因缺失的效果,包括诱导端粒 DNA 损伤、端粒脆弱性和抑制癌症干细胞特性。我们进一步表明,bRAF 和 ERK2 激酶都在体外磷酸化 TRF1,并且这些修饰对于 TRF1 在体内定位于端粒是必不可少的。最后,我们将这些新的 TRF1 调节途径用作基础,发现基于 TRF1 抑制的新的药物组合,目的是有效地阻止患者来源的神经胶质瘤异种移植模型中对个别药物的潜在耐药性。
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