Abstract 825: Identification of molecular therapeutic targets that enhance the antitumor activity of neratinib in breast cancer cells
Authors: Lim Bora , Lee Jangsoon , Pearson Troy , Huey Liu , Hwang Minha , Choi Kuicheon , Avogadri-Connors Francesca , Cutler Richard E. , Tripathy Debu , Ueno Naoto T. 
Published: August 2018

Background: Aberrant expression of members of the ErbB family of receptor tyrosine kinases and its downstream pathways is known to play pivotal roles in breast cancer malignancy. HER2-positive breast cancer has an aggressive nature that is driven by HER2 gene amplification. Inflammatory breast cancer is a rare but the most aggressive clinical subtype of breast cancer. Triple-negative breast cancer is an aggressive receptor subtype of breast cancer. More than 30% of cases of each of these groups express EGFR. Emerging therapeutic resistance continues to be a challenge in recurrent and/or metastatic disease. Neratinib is a potent irreversible EGFR, HER2, and HER4 tyrosine kinase inhibitor that blocks signal transduction generated via these receptors. In this study, we sought to identify the optimal targets in different subtypes of breast cancer and synergistic partners to maximize the antitumor effect of neratinib against breast cancer cells in vitro and in vivo.

Methods: Expression of EGFR and HER2 was assessed via Western blot in 31 breast cancer cell lines, including HER2-targeted drug-resistant cell lines (14 triple-negative breast cancer and 10 HER2-positive). The antiproliferative effects of neratinib were measured using cell proliferation and anchorage-independent colony-formation (soft agar) assays. A reverse-phase protein array was used to profile and validate the signaling networks induced by neratinib-based treatment. To identify the synergistic targets, RNA interference screening of a 779-kinome library was performed under multicellular tumor spheroid culture conditions.

Results: In vitro proliferation data demonstrated that neratinib had a nanomolar range of half-maximal inhibitory concentrations in most of the tested cell lines, including T-DM1-resistant HER-2 breast cancer cell lines. Neratinib inhibited colony formation in a dose-dependent manner (P = 0.0001). Reverse-phase protein array data revealed that the efficacy of neratinib correlated with phosphorylated EGFR (R2 = 0.6055) or phosphorylated HER2 (R2 = 0.6734) expression level. Statistical analysis identified the 25 most relevant targets in the RNA interference screening, which we will validate for combinational antitumor effects with neratinib in in vitro and in vivo studies.

Conclusion: We determined the efficacy of neratinib and identified target molecules to enhance neratinib efficacy in different breast cancer subtype cell lines with ErbB alterations. Our data inform new combined treatment strategies with neratinib for breast cancer that will lead to innovative designs using optimized neratinib combinations in clinical trials.

Citation Format: Bora Lim, Jangsoon Lee, Troy Pearson, Liu Huey, Minha Hwang, Kuicheon Choi, Francesca Avogadri-Connors, Richard E. Cutler, Debu Tripathy, Naoto T. Ueno. Identification of molecular therapeutic targets that enhance the antitumor activity of neratinib in breast cancer cells [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 825.