Summary
Background As accumulating evidences suggest close involvement of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) in cancer, novel PI3K inhibitors such as ZSTK474, GDC-0941, NVP-BEZ235 and BKM-120 have been developed for cancer therapy. A high frequency of hotspot mutations known as E542K, E545K and H1047R in the PIK3CA gene, which encodes the catalytic subunit of PI3Kα, has been found in various types of human cancers. The hotspot PIK3CA mutations also lead to resistance to therapeutics targeting epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), further suggesting that inhibition of hotspot mutant PIK3CA be required for a PI3K inhibitor as anticancer drug candidate. Methods To investigate the activity of the novel PI3K inhibitors on the hotspot mutant PIK3CA, we determined the inhibition against the respective recombinant mutant PI3Kαs by biochemical assay. We further examined the activity at cellular background by determining the effect on phosphorylation of Akt (Ser473), and that on the growth of cancer cells. In addition, apoptosis and autophagy in cells with or without hotspot PIK3CA mutation induced by the four inhibitors were investigated. Results Our results indicated that each inhibitor exhibit comparable activity on the hotspot mutant PI3Kα to that on the wild type, which was further demonstrated by the cell-based assays. No clear correlation was shown between the PIK3CA genetic status and the sensitivity for apoptosis or autophagy induction. Interestingly, among the 4 PI3K inhibitors, BKM-120 is the weakest in PI3K inhibitory potency, but induces most potent apoptosis, suggesting that BKM-120 might have a unique mode of action. Conclusions Our result shows that the PI3K inhibitors exhibit potent activity on both hotspot mutant and wild type PI3Kα, suggesting they might be used to treat patients with or without PIK3CA mutation when approved.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Mr. S. Isoyama, Ms. Y. Nishimura, Ms. Y. Ohashi, Ms. Y. Mukai, Ms. M. Okamura, Ms. M. Seki, and Ms. N. Tamaki for their assistance in cell-based assays. ZSTK474 was kindly provided by Zenyaku Kogyo Co. Ltd. This work was supported in part by a grants-in-aid of the Priority Areas from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan to T. Yamori and S. Dan (20015048); a grants-in-aid for Scientific Research (A) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science to T. Yamori and S. Dan (221S0001); grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China (81373441), the Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin (12JCZDJC25800), and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (BR131302, S-12105).
Conflicts of interest
Shingo Dan has a research fund from Zenyaku Kogyo Co. Ltd, which is the proprietary company of ZSTK474. No conflict of interest is declared for the other authors.
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Fig. S1
HER-2 expression in 39 human cancer cell lines (JFCR39) The expressions of HER-2 in the 39 human cancer cell lines including lung cancer, NCI-H23, NCI-H226, NCI-H522, NCI-H460, A549, DMS273 and DMS114; colorectal cancer, HCC-2998, KM-12, HT-29, HCT-15 and HCT-116; gastric cancer, MKN-1, MKN-7, MKN-28, MKN-45, MKN-74 and St-4; ovarian cancer, OVCAR-3, OVCAR-4, OVCAR-5, OVCAR-8 and SK-OV-3; breast cancer, BSY-1, HBC-4, HBC-5, MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7; renal cancer, RXF-631L and ACHN; melanoma, LOX-IMVI; glioma, U251, SF-295, SF-539, SF-268, SNB-75 and SNB-78; prostate cancer, DU-145 and PC-3, were detected by Western blot. Compared with other cell lines, HER-2 expressions in SKOV-3 and HBC-5 were much higher. Data represent three independent experiments. (PPT 258 kb).
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Kong, D., Yamori, T., Yamazaki, K. et al. In vitro multifaceted activities of a specific group of novel phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitors on hotspot mutant PIK3CA. Invest New Drugs 32, 1134–1143 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10637-014-0152-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10637-014-0152-z