Abstract 1859: VIP152, a selective CDK9 inhibitor, demonstrates sensitivity in gynecologic cell lines that are cisplatin sensitive or resistant and delivers in vivo antitumor efficacy
Authors: Frigault Melanie M. , Garban Hermes , Greer Joy M. , Hwang Stuart , Izumi Raquel , Johnson Amy J. , Stelte-Ludwig Beatrix , Hamdy Ahmed 
Published: June 2022

Background: The Myc transcription factor has a short half-life of 20-30 minutes (Ramsay et al. 1984) and oncogenic activation and transcriptional addiction leads to sustained levels of Myc, (Gabay et al. 2014). Mechanisms of activation include MYC gene amplification, mutation or rearrangement and have been reported to be prevalent in gynecologic malignancies, such as serous ovarian (39.2%), uterine (28.1%) and endometrial (19.5%) (https://www.cancer.gov/tcga). Since CDK9 phosphorylation of RNA polymerase II is required for transcription of Myc mRNA, we evaluate VIP152, a highly selective CDK9 inhibitor (Lücking et al 2021), to deliver antitumor responses in preclinical models of gynecologic malignancies.

Methods: Gynecologic cell lines were treated with 9 dose levels of VIP152 with DMSO and cisplatin as controls. IC50 were calculated using CellTiter-Glo luminescent cell viability assay after 72 hours treatment. A preliminary analysis of 19 cell lines was undertaken to determine whether response to VIP152 is associated with baseline mutation, gene expression, or copy number variation data. Monotherapy efficacy of VIP152 was evaluated in a cisplatin sensitive A2780 in vivo xenograft mouse model.

Results: Screening of gynecologic cell lines demonstrates a 3-log range of sensitivity with VIP152 IC50s ranging from 38-593nM. Simultaneous cisplatin screening identified sensitive and resistant cell lines in the same panel. Low VIP152 IC50s were observed in cell lines sensitive or resistant to cisplatin. Cell lines were assigned as sensitive and resistant based on the VIP152 IC50 values. Preliminary analysis suggests a gene signature could predict response to VIP152 in gynecologic malignancies. VIP152 was evaluated in an ovarian cancer A2780 in vivo xenograft model. Monotherapy treatment with 4 doses of VIP152 across 5 dose levels from 5- to 15-mg/kg weekly regimens provided increasing tumor growth inhibition compared with vehicle control.

Conclusions: VIP152 demonstrates sensitivity in gynecologic cell lines independent of cisplatin sensitivity. An interim gene signature that is associated with VIP152 sensitivity was defined and we plan to optimize this signature with a larger cell line panel. Dose-dependent tumor growth inhibition in an in vivo xenograft model is demonstrated. VIP152 is currently being evaluated in the clinic (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifiers: NCT02635672 and NCT04978779). References: Gabay et al. 2014. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Med. 4(6):a014241. Lücking et al. 2021. J Med Chem. 64(15):11651-11674. Ramsay et al. 1984. PNAS. 81(24):7742-7746.

Citation Format: Melanie M. Frigault, Hermes Garban, Joy M. Greer, Stuart Hwang, Raquel Izumi, Amy J. Johnson, Beatrix Stelte-Ludwig, Ahmed Hamdy. VIP152, a selective CDK9 inhibitor, demonstrates sensitivity in gynecologic cell lines that are cisplatin sensitive or resistant and delivers in vivo antitumor efficacy [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 1859.