Abstract 2839: Methionine restriction radiosensitizes KRAS mutant rectal cancer
Authors: Wolfe Adam R. , Garg Sarita , Van Matre Stetson , Eluvathingal Robin , Zuniga Oscar , Rodrigues Henrique , Aykin-Burns Nükhet , Miousse Isabelle Racine 
Published: April 2023

Purpose/Objective(s): Radiation therapy (RT) is the standard of care in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer, but not all patients respond equally to RT. KRAS-mutated (KRASmut) cancer cells are highly radioresistance and require higher levels of methionine, an essential amino acid, compared to KRAS wildtype (KRASwt) and normal cells, and diet restriction of methionine has been shown to potentiate the effects of radiation in vivo. We hypothesized that methionine restriction (MR) could radiosensitize KRASmut rectal cancer cells.

Materials/Methods: HCT116 KRASG13D/+ and SW48 KRASwt colorectal carcinoma isogenic cell lines and their isogenic derivative cell lines HCT 116 KRAS+/- and SW48 KRASG13D were obtained from Horizon Discovery Ltd (Cambridge, UK). Radiation clonogenic assays, immunofluorescence, and western blot analysis of key DNA damage response proteins were performed in the KRASmut vs. KRASwt colorectal cells treated with ionizing radiation (IR, 2-6 Gy) at increasing time points following pre-treatment with methionine control (MC) (200 µM) or MR (40-fold reduction in methionine, 5 µM) media for 48 hours. One hundred thousand luciferase-expressing KRASwt or KRASmut SW48 cells were implanted orthotopically in the rectum of athymic nude mice. After confirmation of tumor formation at one-week post-injection, the mouse diet was changed to either an MC (0.84% methionine w/w) or MR (0.12% methionine w/w) diet for a total of two weeks. Rectal tumors were treated on an Xstrahl small animal radiation research platform (SARRP) to a dose of 25 Gy in 5 daily fractions (1 cm x 1 cm collimator, isocenter at anal verge) during the second week of diet modification. Tumor growth was measured via bioluminescence on IVIS Lumina every two weeks for four weeks post-radiation.

Results: MR significantly increased radiosensitization compared to MC in both HCT116 and SW48 cells in vitro. KRASmut cells showed a 20-30% increase in radiation in the dose enhancement ratio compared to the KRASwt cells. The protein expression and nuclear foci per cell of the DNA damage marker γH2AX were significantly higher in the KRASmut cells compared to KRASwt cells following 5 Gy of RT at 6 hours. Protein expression of homologous recombination pathway proteins RAD51 and the CtBP interacting protein (CtIP) were higher at baseline in the KRASmut cells than KRASwt. MR substantially reduced the expression of these proteins following RT. Mice harboring SW48 KRASmut rectal tumors treated with 5 Gy x 5 RT and MR showed a significant increase in the complete response rate compared to MC (80% vs. 10%, p=0.02). In the mice harboring SW48 KRASwt rectal tumors, there was no significant difference in response rate between MR vs. MC (40% vs. 30%, p=NS).

Conclusion: Our study indicates a novel strategy to radiosensitize resistant KRAS-mutated rectal cancer through MR. Studies testing the mechanism of KRAS-dependent methionine-mediated DNA repair is ongoing.

Citation Format: Adam R. Wolfe, Sarita Garg, Stetson Van Matre, Robin Eluvathingal, Oscar Zuniga, Henrique Rodrigues, Nükhet Aykin-Burns, Isabelle Racine Miousse. Methionine restriction radiosensitizes KRAS mutant rectal cancer [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 2839.