Abstract 81: ARL13B interacts with IMPDH2 to modulate purine synthesis and temozolomide resistance in glioblastoma
Authors: Shireman Jack , Ali Eunus , Saathoff Miranda , Park Cheol , Ben-Sahra Issam , Ahmed Atique U. 
Published: August 2019

Glioblastoma, a universally lethal primary brain tumor, harnesses cellular plasticity to drive therapeutic adaptation. Critical factors in developing this plasticity are histone modifiers such as Polycomb Repressor Complex 2 protein EZH2. In order to examine tumor cell plasticity in depth, we conducted multiple ChIP Sequencing runs and demonstrate that EZH2 binds within an enhancer region of ARL13B during temozolomide (TMZ) therapy and induces an H3K4 mono-methylation mark. Concurrently, we observed an increase in H3K27ac at the transcription start site of ARL13B as well as a lack of H3K27 tri-methylation, EZH2’s canonical histone mark. Based on this we hypothesize that EZH2 could be non-canonically regulating ARL13B to allow for cellular plasticity and ultimately drive therapeutic adaptation. Delving further into this regulation we demonstrate that knockdown of ARL13B in patient derived xenograft cells significantly increased survival of mice in an orthotopic GBM model when compared to controls (p-value &lt;0.0001). The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) patient dataset demonstrates time to recurrence in patients with downregulated ARL13B is substantially increased as compared to ARL13B upregulated patients (log-rank p-value=0.0012). Searching for a mechanism behind this survival benefit, we preformed mass spectrometry on an ARL13B pulldown in a patient derived xenograft line during TMZ therapy and identified inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase 2 (IMPDH2), the rate-limiting enzyme in de-novo guanine nucleotide biosynthesis, as a significant binding partner of ARL13B during TMZ chemotherapy (p-value &lt;0.0001). Probing this novel interaction further we examined the de-novo and salvage purine biosynthesis pathways using radiolabeled carbon tracing experiments. In ARL13B knockdown cells, purine salvage pathway usage is upregulated 7-fold (p-value &lt;0.0001) while de-novo pathway usage was decreased about 50% (p-value=0.004) in a TMZ specific manner. Examination of IMPDH2 enzymatic activity using a formazin reduction assay demonstrated a decrease in activity over 8 days of TMZ exposure (p&lt;.001). Moreover, ARL13B knockdown GBM cells treated with TMZ show a robust increase in DNA double-strand breaks compared to control cells exposed to TMZ, demonstrated by γH2X staining. Finally, a potent inhibitor of IMPDH2 (Mycophenolate Mofetil) significantly extended median survival in an orthotopic PDX mouse model only when in combination with TMZ (p&lt;.01). Based on these data we hypothesize that EZH2 regulates a novel ARL13B and IMPDH2 interaction which when lost forces cells into salvage synthesis exclusively. This synthesis shift forces cells to uptake and incorporate purines that have been alkylated by TMZ therapy which increases DNA double strand breaks and ultimately impairs therapeutic adaptation.

Citation Format: Jack Shireman, Eunus Ali, Miranda Saathoff, Cheol Park, Issam Ben-Sahra, Atique U. Ahmed. ARL13B interacts with IMPDH2 to modulate purine synthesis and temozolomide resistance in glioblastoma [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 81.