Abstract 3682: Therapeutic targeting of stem cell self-renewal in childhood medulloblastoma: Strategies for blocking recurrence
Authors: Bakhshinyan David , Kameda-Smith Michelle , Manoranjan Branavan , Adile Ashley , Venugopal Chitra , Singh Sheila Kumari 
Published: August 2019

Introduction: Medulloblastoma (MB) is the most common malignant pediatric brain tumor. Group 3 MB patients face the highest incidence of metastasis and poor overall patient survival. The early onset and highly aggressive nature of MB suggest a stem cell origin, where a highly self-renewing transformed cell of the postnatal cerebellum drives MB tumorigenesis. In this work, we explore how WNT signaling and other essential drivers of self-renewal, BMI1 and MSI1, promote MB progression. We subsequently generate new strategies to therapeutically target mechanisms of MB stem cell self-renewal that drive treatment resistance and relapse in Group 3 MB.

Experimental procedures: We apply stem cell assays, patient-derived human-mouse xenograft (PDX) models, and genomic and bioinformatic profiling of recurrent patient-derived MB. Our established brain tumor initiating cell (BTIC) model provides an excellent tool for the examination of developmental pathways implicated in MB.

New Unpublished Data: A small molecule Bmi1 inhibitor, PTC-028, induced a remarkable decrease in self-renewal as well as reduction of local and spinal metastatic disease in recurrent MB, which is striking as no prior drug has shown efficacy against recurrent Group 3 MB. Although mouse and human neural stem cells (NSCs) express Bmi1 and are mildly sensitive to Bmi1 inhibitors, no significant toxicity was observed in either mouse or human NSCs upon PTC-028 treatment, at doses that induced efficacious killing of MB cells. Another novel therapeutic paradigm includes activating Wnt signaling in otherwise non-Wnt MB, which abrogates self-renewal and tumorigenicity of these highly aggressive tumors. For safe and non-toxic activation of Wnt in preclinical models, we identified L807mts, a novel inhibitor that functions through a substrate-to-inhibitor conversion mechanism within the catalytic site of GSK. A final therapeutic strategy to target self-renewal lies in the discovery of the targetable MB-specific interactome of the RNA binding protein (RBP) Musashi1, another key regulator of stem cell self-renewal. Msi1 is overexpressed in Group 3 MB compared to normal cerebellum, and is associated with poor patient prognosis. shRNA knockdown of Msi1 decreased the self-renewal capacity of MB stem cells and significantly decreased tumor burden and increased survival in our PDX model. Finally, comparative eCLIP (enhanced cross-linking and immunoprecipitation) of MB stem cells and normal NSCs, combined with mass spectrometry and RNA-sequencing of shMsi1 MB cells, has elucidated novel therapeutic targets in the RBP interactome of Msi1

Conclusion: Characterization and therapeutic targeting of self-renewal mechanisms unique to MB BTICs may provide an opportunity to limit treatment-resistant stem cell populations from driving patient relapse in recurrent Group 3 MB, a disease currently lacking any targeted therapies.

Note: This abstract was not presented at the meeting.

Citation Format: David Bakhshinyan, Michelle Kameda-Smith, Branavan Manoranjan, Ashley Adile, Chitra Venugopal, Sheila Kumari Singh. Therapeutic targeting of stem cell self-renewal in childhood medulloblastoma: Strategies for blocking recurrence [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3682.