Abstract 5150: Improvement of hematopoiesis in primary low risk MDS with the TGFBR1 investigational inhibitor TP-6379
Authors: Eksioglu Erika A. , Wright Gabriela M. , Foulks Jason M. , Lalonde Matthew , Warner Steven L. , Wright Kenneth L. 
Published: April 2023

Background: The inflammaging modulator, S100A9, mediates immunosuppression and plays a key role in the pathogenesis of low-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Specifically, S100A9’s feedforward activation in the bone marrow (BM) induces pyroptotic cell death of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPC) and the activation and accumulation of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC). This process creates a suppressive microenvironment including the secretion of transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) that signals through the TGFβ receptor 1 (TGFBR1) to induce inhibitory processes that contribute to this phenotype. We hypothesize that targeting with an investigational TGFBR1 inhibitor, TP-6379, reduces immune suppression and restores hematopoiesis in MDS.

Methods: Primary low risk MDS BM mononuclear cells (BMMNC) were obtained from the Moffitt Total Cancer Care Protocol and cultured in vitro with TP-6379. Healthy BMMNC were purchased, treated with or without recombinant S100A9 and TP-6379.

Results: Treatment of primary MDS BMMNC (n=15) and S100A9-treated healthy BMMNC (n=5) with TP-6379 for 48 hours was observed to significantly improve proliferation of hematopoietic progenitor cells as measured by colony forming capacity. Total colonies, and BFU-E specific colonies, showed significant increase. This expansion of progenitors with treatment was validated by flow cytometric analysis of Lineage−HLA-DR−CD34+ HSPC and showed a reduction in genomic instability, measured by γH2AX. In addition, TP-6379 was observed to reduce the numbers of suppressive mediators; MDSC, T regs and senescent lymphocytes and increase the number of cytotoxic cells, including NK cells. Our analysis revealed that BMMNC with spliceosomal mutations, including SF3B1, have elevated sensitivity to TP-6379 treatment. Therefore, we tested wild type and SF3B1 K700E CRISPR knock-in K562 cells in the presence of TP-6379 for 48 hours. K562 is a well-established cell line model for study of MDS. The SF3B1 mutant expressing cells have significantly reduced BFU-E colony forming capacity, compared to wild type cells, concordant with higher pyroptosis activation and consistent with the BMMNC results. Hence, we measured phospho-SMAD activity, as a direct measure of TGFBR1 inhibition. SF3B1 mutant expressing cells were shown to be highly sensitive to TP-6379, with a significant loss of SMAD activation. Expression analysis of primary MDS, S100A9-treated healthy BMMNC cells and K562 SF3B1 mutant cells revealed elevated expression of SERPINE1 which was rescued by TP-6379 treatment.

Conclusions: TP-6379 restores healthy hematopoiesis in low-risk MDS, which may translate into a strong therapeutic option in a disease with few clinical options. Importantly, our work also suggests a specific role for spliceosome dysfunction in bone marrow failure and a novel role for SERPINE1 in MDS and S100A9-induced suppression.

Citation Format: Erika A. Eksioglu, Gabriela M. Wright, Jason M. Foulks, Matthew Lalonde, Steven L. Warner, Kenneth L. Wright. Improvement of hematopoiesis in primary low risk MDS with the TGFBR1 investigational inhibitor TP-6379. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 5150.