Abstract A16: Potent and selective ATR inhibitors for the treatment of homologous-recombination deficient and PARPi-resistant cancers
Authors: Butler Laura R. , Ragland Ryan L. , Breslin Hank J. , George Erin , Gill Tina , Scheiwer Matthew , Gordon Nicolas , Knudsen Karen , Simpkins Fiona , Gilad Oren , Brown Eric J. 
Published: April 2017

Ataxia Telangiectasia and Rad3-related (ATR) and Checkpoint kinase 1 (CHK1) stabilize stalled replication forks and prevent their collapse into DNA double strand breaks (DSBs). Inhibition of ATR in cells experiencing oncogenic stress or harboring other cancer-associated defects synergistically increases the formation of DSBs and causes synthetic lethality. Thus specific targeting of ATR represents an emerging strategy to treat a broad spectrum of cancers, most notably those that currently lack effective treatments. We and others have shown that inhibition of the ATR checkpoint kinase is synthetically lethal with multiple distinct cancer-associated mutations, including p53 loss, oncogenic stress (HRAS-G12V, KRAS-G12D, NRAS-G12D, MYC and CCNE1), deficiency in homologous recombination (BRCA1/2, PALB2, ATM loss), alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT), chromatin modification (SETD2 loss), and others. The specificity of ATR inhibitors is vital to their successful clinical application, since off-targeting increases toxicity to normal cells and limits value in personalized treatments.

We report the generation of a novel class of highly potent and specific ATR inhibitors (ATRN series) that exhibit low nanomolar activity in cultured cells (IC50 = 2-8 nM) and do not detectably inhibit ATM, DNA-PK or mTOR (IC50 &gt; 10 µM). In side-by-side comparisons, both the potency and selectivity of the ATRN series is superior to previously reported ATR inhibitors (VE821, VE822, AZD20, AZD6738, ETP-46464). In addition, the ATRN series has sufficient bioavailability and stability for in vivo application. Our lead compound (ATRN-119) slows progression of human BRCA2-deficient PDAC (CAPAN1) and RAS oncogene-driven p53-null colon tumors in mice with minimal toxicity to tissues under normal proliferative control, including the bone marrow and intestine. Additionally, mice engrafted with BRCA2-mutant patient-derived xenograft (PDX) ovarian tumors show a significant reduction in tumor progression after 5 weeks treatment of ATRN-119, and display no toxicity or significant weight loss. In addition, cancers that maintain or reacquire HR function, and thus are resistant to treatment with PARPi or cisplatin, remain responsive to ATRN series inhibitors. Thus, ATRN-119 is highly efficacious in suppressing tumor growth in multiple murine models, including suppression of patient-derived BRCA2-mutant ovarian, and PARP resistant cancers, suggesting that the clinical application of the ATRN series will provide a new and effective treatment for human malignancies with fewer side effects than conventional chemotherapies.

In summary, the ATRN series is a highly selective and potent class of ATR inhibitors with therapeutic potential for treating a broad range of cancers. The potentially identified biomarkers, in particular HR-deficiency, will inform patient selection (a critical component for delivering medical benefit) for treatment with our agent and could reduce future clinical risk and side-effects. Thus targeting patients with HR-deficient cancers is a particularly promising strategy in treating a broad range of cancers.

Citation Format: Laura R. Butler, Ryan L. Ragland, Hank J. Breslin, Erin George, Tina Gill, Matthew Scheiwer, Nicolas Gordon, Karen Knudsen, Fiona Simpkins, Oren Gilad and Eric J. Brown. Potent and selective ATR inhibitors for the treatment of homologous-recombination deficient and PARPi-resistant cancers [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on DNA Repair: Tumor Development and Therapeutic Response; 2016 Nov 2-5; Montreal, QC, Canada. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Res 2017;15(4_Suppl):Abstract nr A16.