EWS/FLI Confers Tumor Cell Synthetic Lethality to CDK12 Inhibition in Ewing Sarcoma.

Cancer Cell
Authors
Keywords
Abstract

Many cancer types are driven by oncogenic transcription factors that have been difficult to drug. Transcriptional inhibitors, however, may offer inroads into targeting these cancers. Through chemical genomics screening, we identified that Ewing sarcoma is a disease with preferential sensitivity to THZ1, a covalent small-molecule CDK7/12/13 inhibitor. The selective CDK12/13 inhibitor, THZ531, impairs DNA damage repair in an EWS/FLI-dependent manner, supporting a synthetic lethal relationship between response to THZ1/THZ531 and EWS/FLI expression. The combination of these molecules with PARP inhibitors showed striking synergy in cell viability and DNA damage assays in vitro and in multiple models of Ewing sarcoma, including a PDX, in vivo without hematopoietic toxicity.

Year of Publication
2018
Journal
Cancer Cell
Volume
33
Issue
2
Pages
202-216.e6
Date Published
2018 02 12
ISSN
1878-3686
DOI
10.1016/j.ccell.2017.12.009
PubMed ID
29358035
PubMed Central ID
PMC5846483
Links
Grant list
R01 HG002668 / HG / NHGRI NIH HHS / United States
R35 CA210030 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States