Abstract 3012: ONC201 induces cell death in triple negative, BRCA1-deficient and non-triple negative breast cancer cells
Authors: Baumeister Marie D. , Wagner Jessica , Prabhu Varun V. , Kline Christina LB , Lim Bora , Allen Josh E. , Dicker David T. , El-Deiry Wafik S. 
Published: July 2016

Breast cancer is a major cause of cancer related death. TRAIL has been of interest as a cancer therapeutic, but resistance has been observed in breast cancer and only a subset of triple negative breast cancers (TNBC) is sensitive to TRAIL. Small molecule ONC201 functions through the ATF4/CHOP pathway to upregulate TRAIL receptor DR5 (Kline et. al., Sci. Sig., in press, 2015), and through dual inhibition of Akt/ERK signaling to upregulate TRAIL (Allen et. al Sci. Trans. Med., 2013). We recently reported that ONC201 depletes colorectal cancer stem cell (CSC) markers and prevents formation of colonospheres. ONC201 also prevents colorectal CSCs from initiating growth of xenografted tumors (Prabhu et. al Can. Res., 2015). ONC201 has completed its first-in-human clinical trial in advanced solid tumors (Stein et al., 2015 AACR-NCI-EORTC meeting) and is being tested in multiple phase I/II clinical trials (NCT02250781, NCT02324621, NCT02420795, NCT02392572, NCT02609230, NCT02525692, NCT02038699). We investigated ONC201 efficacy in TNBC (TRAIL-sensitive), BRCA1-deficient, and non-TNBC (TRAIL-resistant) cells. We demonstrate IC50 values for ONC201 in the low μM range for TNBC or BRCA1-deficient (n = 6) and non-TNBC cells (n = 5), doses that are achievable based on human PK. Importantly, ONC201 induces apoptotic death in both TNBC and non-TNBC cells. ONC201 depletes Aldefluor+ putative breast CSCs in vitro whereas paclitaxel does not. ONC201 inhibits growth of TNBC, BRCA1-deficient and non-TNBC CSC-like mammospheres while paclitaxel chemotherapy does not. We show ONC201 is well tolerated and efficacious in vivo against the MDA-MB-231 TNBC xenograft model. We investigated effects of ONC201 on mechanisms of TRAIL resistance in breast cancer cells, including expression of inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) family proteins. We found that ONC201 mediates a decrease in XIAP, c-IAP1, and c-IAP2 expression in the breast cancer cells used. We also examined levels of DR5 using flow cytometry, as a mechanism of TRAIL resistance in breast cancer cells involves receptor endocytosis from the cell surface (Zhang et al., Mol Cancer Res., 2008). Interestingly, we observed greater increases in cell surface DR5 in TNBC cells than non-TNBC cells after ONC201 treatment. Our findings suggest that ONC201 exerts cytotoxic effects against a broad range of breast cancer cells, including TNBC, BRCA1-deficient, and non-TNBC subtypes. ONC201 is efficacious against breast cancer cells regardless of the TRAIL sensitivity of the cells, and this efficacy may be mediated through mechanisms involving downregulation of IAP proteins and upregulation of cell surface death receptors. Furthermore, ONC201 may target paclitaxel-resistant breast CSCs. Our findings suggest unique targeting of multiple non-TNBC, BRCA1-deficient and TNBC cells and develop a preclinical rationale for the use of ONC201 as a treatment for breast cancer.

Citation Format: Marie D. Baumeister, Jessica Wagner, Varun V. Prabhu, Christina LB Kline, Bora Lim, Josh E. Allen, David T. Dicker, Wafik S. El-Deiry. ONC201 induces cell death in triple negative, BRCA1-deficient and non-triple negative breast cancer cells. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 3012.