Abstract 1532: Mithramycin induces the antiproliferative activity of chemotherapeutic agents in Ewing sarcoma cells
Authors: Anish Ray, Bhavani Nagarajan, Umesh T. Sankpal, Sagar Shelake, W. Paul Bowman, Andras Lacko, Riyaz M. Basha
Journal: Cancer Research (2017)

Abstract Ewing sarcoma (ES) is one of the most frequent primary bone and soft tissue tumors that occur in pediatric and adolescent population. ES is often diagnosed after the disease has already metastasized. With available treatment options, the prognosis of metastatic ES patients is poor and the 5-year survival rate is less than 20%. Therefore, identifying precise targeted therapies to induce therapeutic response in ES patients is urgently needed. An oncogenic fusion protein and transcription factor EWS-FLI1 is associated with more than 85% of ES tumors. Mithramycin has been identified as an effective agent to target EWS-FLI1 and is currently in clinical trials. In this study, we investigated the efficacy of Mithramycin to induce the anti-proliferative activity of chemotherapeutic agents commonly used for the treatment of this malignancy using human ES cell lines. TC71, TC32, CHLA32, CHLA10 and TC205 cells were treated with increasing concentrations of Mithramycin or Vincristine or Doxorubicin or Etoposide. Cell growth inhibition was evaluated at 24 and 48 h post-treatment using CellTiter Glo kit. Results showed a dose/time-dependent anti-proliferative effect for all agents. To confirm the effect of Mithramycin on selected cell lines, mRNA expression of downstream targets of EWS-FLI1 (ID2, LDB2, NROB1 and RCOR1 genes) was determined by quantitative PCR following treatment with Mithramycin. Mithramycin significantly down-regulated all tested genes and these results are in agreement with published work. In order to determine the combination response, cell growth inhibition of the chemotherapeutic drugs was assessed in the presence of added Mithramycin. The combination Index was evaluated by Chou-Talalay method. Further studies were performed for the combination of Mithramycin and Vincristine to investigate its effect on apoptosis and cell cycle arrest using CHLA10 and TC205 cells. Apoptotic markers such as the expression of cleaved Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (c-PARP) and survivin were determined by Western blot analysis. The apoptotic cell population was measured by Annexin-V staining using flow cytometry. When compared to individual agents, the combination of Mithramycin and Vincristine showed greater effect on apoptosis in both cell lines as evinced by an increase in Annexin-V positive cells, decrease in survivin expression and up-regulation of c-PARP. Overall, these results indicate the potential clinical advantage of combination treatment involving Mithramycin along with other chemotherapeutic agents for inhibiting the growth of ES cells. Molecular profiling analysis is underway to elucidate the candidate pathways associated with beneficial effect of this combination treatment. Note: This abstract was not presented at the meeting. Citation Format: Anish Ray, Bhavani Nagarajan, Umesh T. Sankpal, Sagar Shelake, W. Paul Bowman, Andras Lacko, Riyaz M. Basha. Mithramycin induces the antiproliferative activity of chemotherapeutic agents in Ewing sarcoma cells [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 1532. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-1532