Abstract A34: The identification of combinatorial therapeutic approaches with BCR inhibitors in B cell malignancies
Authors: Pavlasova Gabriela , Musilova Katerina , Seda Vaclav , Cerna Katerina , Vojackova Eva , Svobodova Veronika , Mraz Marek 
Published: December 2017

Introduction: It was shown that BCR inhibitors such as ibrutinib interrupt microenvironmental interactions and mobilize malignant B cells of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) from immune niches into the blood stream. It has been suggested that this mobilization will sensitize malignant B cells to other drugs, providing a possibility to introduce synthetically lethal combinations of drugs with an acceptable toxicity profile. This might be limited to a subgroup of CLL patients with specific underlying molecular mechanisms of disease biology or reaction to BCR inhibitors. The aim of this study was to test for the effect of ibrutinib on the expression of genes and activity of pathways that could be potentially targeted by clinically available drugs to achieve highly potent combinations.

Results: We performed gene expression profiling in samples obtained from CLL patients treated with ibrutinib as a single agent (pre-ibrutinib vs. day 15 and/or week 5/12/15; N=12 pairs) to identify potential therapeutic targets. We have primarily focused on analyzes of cell-surface proteins and anti-apoptotic Bcl2 family members, since therapeutic antibodies and small molecular inhibitors for these molecules are available. We have analyzed changes in &gt;30 cell-surface molecules, 8 members of the Bcl2 family, and members of other potentially relevant pathways (chemokines, adhesion, Akt, Erk, Ras, NFkB).

Notably, we have observed that the mRNA and B cell-surface levels of CD20 are strongly down-modulated with ibrutinib, which indicates that the previously suggested combination of ibrutinib and anti-CD20 antibodies (such as rituximab or ofatumumab) is likely not ideal. Indeed, we showed that CLL cells with lower levels of CD20 are more resistant to rituximab in vitro, but also in vivo (P&lt;0.01). We also showed that the effect of ibrutinib on CD20 levels is mediated by inhibition of CXCR4/SDF-1 axis, which impairs the SDF-1α (ligand for CXCR4) mediated regulation of CD20 expression (P&lt;0.01).

Notably, it has been shown that addition of rituximab to ibrutinib in vivo is able to partially eliminate CLL cells despite lower levels of CD20 suggesting that there must be other mechanism of ibrutinib action that allows for the effect of rituximab. The screening of anti-apoptotic molecules revealed that Mcl1 levels were significantly down-modulated after ibrutinib treatment in vivo (P=0.002), and ibrutinib also inhibited Mcl1 induction in CLL cells co-cultured with stromal cells (HS-5). As Mcl1 was described to directly protect CLL cells from rituximab, we suggest that ibrutinib-mediated Mcl1 reduction is a mechanism that facilitates rituximab efficacy.

On the other hand we have shown that several members of Bcl2 family are up-regulated in CLL samples obtained after &gt;3 weeks on ibrutinib therapy. We have also shown that interactions of stromal cells (HS-5) with CLL cells lead to up-regulation of these molecules while ibrutinib inhibits this in vitro (P&lt;0.01). This suggest that the observed in vivo up-regulation of specific Bcl2 family members is due to an adaptation of B cells or selection of malignant B cells with high-level expression of anti-apoptotic molecules sufficient to survive the BCR signalling inhibition. We observed that the survival of CLL cells treated with ibrutinib is dependent on Bcl2, and subsequent Bcl2 inhibition can act synergistically with ibrutinib in B cell lines and CLL samples. These anti-apoptotic molecules therefore represent primary candidates with synthetically lethal potential in combination with ibrutinib. Additionally, we have identified dependence of a subtype of CLL cases on integrin signalling. The inhibition of integrin VLA-4 with anti-VLA4 antibody or integrin-associated kinase overcame the resistance of CLL cells to chemotherapy drugs and also to anti-CD20 antibodies, and synergized with the effects of ibrutinib.

Conclusion: We have performed gene expression analysis of primary samples obtained from patients on ibrutinib, and identified gene expression changes that are associated with adaptation of B cells and/or selection of B cell resistant to BCR inhibition. We have shown that malignant B cells are dependent on integrin-signalling and the up-regulation of Bcl2 protein, which makes them synergistically lethal targets.

Supported by: The results of this research have been acquired within CEITEC 2020 (LQ1601) project with financial contribution made by the Ministry of Education, Youths and Sports of the Czech Republic within special support paid from the National Programme for Sustainability II funds.

Citation Format: Gabriela Pavlasova, Katerina Musilova, Vaclav Seda, Katerina Cerna, Eva Vojackova, Veronika Svobodova, Marek Mraz. The identification of combinatorial therapeutic approaches with BCR inhibitors in B cell malignancies [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Precision Medicine Series: Opportunities and Challenges of Exploiting Synthetic Lethality in Cancer; Jan 4-7, 2017; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2017;16(10 Suppl):Abstract nr A34.