Abstract 2009: Novel clinically relevant CLIP-170 variants display an extended conformation microtubule-lattice bound conformation associated with taxane resistance
Authors: Castillo Urko del , Sahu Kiran Kumari , Stone William G. , Shah Manish A. , Giannakakou Paraskevi 
Published: March 2024

Taxanes are microtubule (MT)-stabilizing drugs widely used for the treatment of solid tumors, including the highly prevalent cancers of the breast, the prostate and gastric cancer. However, despite their initial activity, taxane resistance invariably occurs, leaving patients with limited therapeutic options. Currently, the molecular determinants of clinical taxane resistance remain poorly understood. We recently identified CLIP-170S, a novel truncated variant of the MT plus-end binding protein CLIP-170, that confers taxane resistance in vitro and is associated with clinical taxane resistance in patients with gastric cancer. We further showed that CLIP-170S is aberrantly localized along the MT lattice, thus impairing taxane access to its binding site in the MT lumen. However, the mechanism underlying the resistance-inducing extensive lattice localization of CLIP-170S is unknown. The activity and MT binding properties of canonical CLIP-170 are regulated by conformational changes mediated by the interaction of its N- and C-terminal domains. In its inactive, “closed” conformation, CLIP-170 is soluble as the N- and C-terminal domains interact with each other. In the active “open” conformation, CLIP-170’s N- and C-terminal domains are apart, thus exposing its MT-binding domain and allowing MT plus-end binding. As CLIP-170S is missing part of its N-terminal domain, we hypothesized that CLIP-170S is constitutively displayed in an open conformation that promotes its extensive and aberrant localization to the MT lattice. To prove this hypothesis, we used the FKBP-rapalog-FRB system to “force” CLIP-170S to assume a “closed” conformation. We generated a fusion CLIP-170S protein tagged with FKBP and FRB domains in its N- and C-terminal, respectively. The addition of rapalog induced FKBP (N-ter) and FRB (C-ter) domains to interact, promoting CLIP-170S to adopt a “closed” conformation. CLIP-170S in this “closed” conformation resulted in its release from the MT-lattice and restored taxane binding to MTs. We next extended our search to other CLIP-170 clinically prevalent variants with sequence alteration predicted to bind to the MT-lattice and potentially interfere with taxane sensitivity. This search identified CLIP-170IR (an intron retention variant) and several other truncation mutants prevalent in gastric, breast and lung cancer cell lines. Experimentally, we showed that these variants not only phenocopy CLIP-170S binding to the MT- lattice but also confer taxane-resistance. Together, these data demonstrate a novel mechanism of taxane resistance mediated by CLIP-170 mutations that induce CLIP-170 to adopt a constitutively “open” MT-lattice binding conformation, which renders them susceptible to causing taxane resistance.

Citation Format: Urko del Castillo, Kiran Kumari Sahu, William G. Stone, Manish A. Shah, Paraskevi Giannakakou. Novel clinically relevant CLIP-170 variants display an extended conformation microtubule-lattice bound conformation associated with taxane resistance [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 2009.