Therapeutic Targeting of PTK7 is Cytotoxic in Atypical Teratoid Rhabdoid Tumors.

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Therapeutic Targeting of PTK7 is Cytotoxic in Atypical Teratoid Rhabdoid Tumors.

Mol Cancer Res. 2017 Apr 25;:

Authors: Messerli SM, Hoffman MM, Gnimpieba EZ, Bhardwaj RD

Abstract
Novel discoveries involving the evaluation of potential therapeutics are based on newly identified molecular targets for atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumors (ATRT), which are the most common form of infantile brain tumors. Central nervous system ATRTs are rare, aggressive, and fast growing tumors of the brain and spinal cord and carry a very poor prognosis. Currently, the standard of care for ATRT patients is based on surgical resection followed by systemic chemotherapy and radiation therapy, which result in severe side effects. Since protein tyrosine kinases have proven to be actionable targets that reduce tumor growth in a number of cancers, we examined how inhibiting tyrosine kinases affected ATRT tumor growth. Here, we examine the therapeutic efficacy of the broad spectrum tyrosine kinase inhibitor Vatalanib in the treatment of ATRT. Vatalanib significantly reduced the growth of ATRT tumor cell lines, both in two-dimensional cell culture and in three-dimensional cell culture using a spheroid model. Since Vatalanib had a remarkable effect on the growth of ATRT, we decided to use a transcriptomic approach to therapy by examining new actionable targets, such as tyrosine kinases. Next generation RNA sequencing and NanoString data analysis showed a significant increase in PTK7 RNA expression levels in ATRT tumors. Inhibition of PTK7 by short interference RNA treatment significantly decreases the viability of ATRT patient-derived tumor cell lines.
IMPLICATIONS: These studies provide the groundwork for future preclinical in vivo studies aiming to investigate the efficacy of PTK7 inhibition on ATRT tumor growth.

PMID: 28442586 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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