Abstract A092: Determinants of sensitivity to BI KRASmulti inhibitor using high-throughput in-vitro drug screens
Authors: Schischlik Fiorella , Tedeschi Antonio , Rudolph Dorothea , Gerlach Daniel , Wilding Birgit , Treu Matthias , Fuchs Julian , Herdeis Lorenz , Broeker Joachim , Wunberg Tobias , Boghossian Andrew S. , Rees Matthew G. , Ronan Melissa M. , Roth Jennifer A. , McConnell Darryl , Pearson Mark , Kraut Norbert , Haslinger Christian , Lipp Jesse 
Published: December 2023

BI 3706674 is a novel small molecule inhibitor targeting KRAS in its inactive (GDP-bound) state and is currently undergoing IND enabling studies. Here, we assess the sensitivity of BI 3706674 in a large panel of cancer cell lines with the aim to identify biomarkers predictive of patient response. We employ two complementary, high-throughput cell viability screening setups: the pooled PRISM (Profiling Relative Inhibition Simultaneously in Mixtures) platform (868 cancer cell lines representing 80 tumor types) and a well-based custom screen performed in collaboration with Horizon Discovery (292 cell lines representing 32 tumor types). Based on correlation with publicly available data of over 1464 drug sensitivity profiles, the top 10 correlated drugs (ranked by Pearson correlation) are exclusively MEK inhibitors. This analysis shows that compounds with high similarity in their sensitivity profile to our KRAS inhibitor target proteins in the MAPK pathway. Correlation of drug sensitivity data with CRISPR gene dependency data for KRAS showed that drug selectivity of BI 3706674 is specific for KRAS (Pearson R = -0.49) compared to other members of the RAS family, such as HRAS or NRAS (R=0.03 & R=0.16). BI 3706674 shows sensitivity across a wide range of KRAS alleles (KRAS wild-type (wt) copy number amplification, G12V, G12C, G13D, G12D, G12A, Q61H) with the highest sensitivity for cell lines with KRAS wt amplifications (relative copy number of &gt; 10) followed by cell lines with a KRAS G12V and G12C mutant alleles. Efficacy was observed in 8/9 cell lines with KRAS wt relative copy number of &gt; 10 (sensitivity threshold of 1- AUC = 0.25) in the PRISM screen, emphasizing the utility of KRAS copy number as a predictive biomarker for drug response. Furthermore, KRAS copy number amplifications and KRAS expression are highly correlated features across cell lines (Pearson R = 0.72, P=2.2e-16), indicating that both KRAS copy number amplification and KRAS expression could serve as sensitivity biomarkers for BI 3706674. In this study, we show that BI 3706674 is a potent and selective KRAS inhibitor and that KRAS copy number alterations represent a highly predictive biomarker. Conclusively, high-throughput drug screens are powerful tools to define and further refine biomarkers and study drug mechanism of actions.

Citation Format: Fiorella Schischlik, Antonio Tedeschi, Dorothea Rudolph, Daniel Gerlach, Birgit Wilding, Matthias Treu, Julian Fuchs, Lorenz Herdeis, Joachim Broeker, Tobias Wunberg, Andrew S. Boghossian, Matthew G. Rees, Melissa M. Ronan, Jennifer A. Roth, Darryl McConnell, Mark Pearson, Norbert Kraut, Christian Haslinger, Jesse Lipp. Determinants of sensitivity to BI KRASmulti inhibitor using high-throughput in-vitro drug screens [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC Virtual International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2023 Oct 11-15; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2023;22(12 Suppl):Abstract nr A092.