Bauer Karin, Berghoff Anna S, Preusser Matthias, Heller Gerwin, Zielinski Christoph C, Valent Peter, Grunt Thomas W
Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Hematology and Oncology, Medical University of Vienna Austria.
Comprehensive Cancer Center, Medical University of Vienna Austria.
Am J Cancer Res. 2021 Feb 1;11(2):530-545. eCollection 2021.
Bromodomain (BRD) and extra-terminal (BET) proteins are epigenetic readers that regulate gene expression and promote cancer evolution. Pharmacological inactivation of BRD4 has recently been introduced as a promising anti-neoplastic approach that targets MYC oncogene expression. However, resistance against BRD4-targeting drugs has been described. We compared the efficacy of the small-molecule-type BET BRD inhibitor JQ1 with the recently developed BET protein degraders dBET1 and dBET6 in colon, breast, melanoma, ovarian, lung and prostate cancer cell lines. As determined by qPCR, all BRD4 targeting drugs dose-dependently decreased MYC expression, with dBET6 introducing the strongest downregulation of MYC. This correlated with the anti-proliferative activity of these drugs, which was at least one order of magnitude higher for dBET6 (IC 0.001-0.5 µM) than for dBET1 or JQ1 (IC 0.5-5 µM). Interestingly, when combined with commonly used cytotoxic therapeutics, dBET6 was found to promote anti-neoplastic effects and to counteract chemoresistance in most cancer cell lines. Moreover, JQ1 and both BET degraders strongly downregulated baseline and interferon-gamma induced expression of the immune checkpoint molecule PD-L1 in all cancer cell lines. Together, our data suggest that dBET6 outperforms first-generation BRD4 targeting drugs like dBET1 and JQ1, and decreases chemoresistance and immune resistance of cancer.
溴结构域(BRD)和额外末端(BET)蛋白是表观遗传阅读器,可调节基因表达并促进癌症进展。BRD4的药理学失活最近被引入作为一种有前景的抗肿瘤方法,该方法靶向MYC癌基因表达。然而,已经报道了对靶向BRD4药物的耐药性。我们比较了小分子型BET BRD抑制剂JQ1与最近开发的BET蛋白降解剂dBET1和dBET6在结肠、乳腺、黑色素瘤、卵巢、肺和前列腺癌细胞系中的疗效。通过qPCR测定,所有靶向BRD4的药物均剂量依赖性地降低MYC表达,其中dBET6对MYC的下调作用最强。这与这些药物的抗增殖活性相关,dBET6(IC 0.001 - 0.5 µM)的抗增殖活性比dBET1或JQ1(IC 0.5 - 5 µM)至少高一个数量级。有趣的是,当与常用的细胞毒性疗法联合使用时,发现dBET6在大多数癌细胞系中可促进抗肿瘤作用并抵消化疗耐药性。此外,JQ1和两种BET降解剂均强烈下调所有癌细胞系中免疫检查点分子PD-L1的基线表达和干扰素-γ诱导的表达。总之,我们的数据表明dBET6优于第一代靶向BRD4的药物如dBET1和JQ1,并可降低癌症的化疗耐药性和免疫耐药性。