RESUMEN

A wide range of human malignancies displays aberrant activation of Hedgehog (HH)/GLI signaling, including cancers of the skin, brain, gastrointestinal tract and hematopoietic system. Targeting oncogenic HH/GLI signaling with small molecule inhibitors of the essential pathway effector Smoothened (SMO) has shown remarkable therapeutic effects in patients with advanced and metastatic basal cell carcinoma. However, acquired and de novo resistance to SMO inhibitors poses severe limitations to the use of SMO antagonists and urgently calls for the identification of novel targets and compounds.Here we report on the identification of the Dual-Specificity-Tyrosine-Phosphorylation-Regulated Kinase 1B (DYRK1B) as critical positive regulator of HH/GLI signaling downstream of SMO. Genetic and chemical inhibition of DYRK1B in human and mouse cancer cells resulted in marked repression of HH signaling and GLI1 expression, respectively. Importantly, DYRK1B inhibition profoundly impaired GLI1 expression in both SMO-inhibitor sensitive and resistant settings. We further introduce a novel small molecule DYRK1B inhibitor, DYRKi, with suitable pharmacologic properties to impair SMO-dependent and SMO-independent oncogenic GLI activity. The results support the use of DYRK1B antagonists for the treatment of HH/GLI-associated cancers where SMO inhibitors fail to demonstrate therapeutic efficacy.

Asunto(s)

Carcinoma Basocelular/patología , Resistencia a Antineoplásicos , Proteínas Hedgehog/metabolismo , Neoplasias Pancreáticas/patología , Proteínas Serina-Treonina Quinasas/metabolismo , Proteínas Tirosina Quinasas/metabolismo , Receptor Smoothened/metabolismo , Proteína con Dedos de Zinc GLI1/metabolismo , Animales , Antineoplásicos/farmacología , Apoptosis/efectos de los fármacos , Western Blotting , Carcinoma Basocelular/tratamiento farmacológico , Carcinoma Basocelular/genética , Carcinoma Basocelular/metabolismo , Proliferación Celular/efectos de los fármacos , Células Cultivadas , Factores de Transcripción Forkhead/fisiología , Proteínas Hedgehog/antagonistas & inhibidores , Proteínas Hedgehog/genética , Humanos , Ratones , Ratones Desnudos , Células 3T3 NIH , Neoplasias Pancreáticas/tratamiento farmacológico , Neoplasias Pancreáticas/genética , Neoplasias Pancreáticas/metabolismo , Proteínas Serina-Treonina Quinasas/antagonistas & inhibidores , Proteínas Serina-Treonina Quinasas/genética , Proteínas Tirosina Quinasas/antagonistas & inhibidores , Proteínas Tirosina Quinasas/genética , ARN Mensajero/genética , ARN Interferente Pequeño/genética , Reacción en Cadena en Tiempo Real de la Polimerasa , Reacción en Cadena de la Polimerasa de Transcriptasa Inversa , Neoplasias Cutáneas/tratamiento farmacológico , Neoplasias Cutáneas/genética , Neoplasias Cutáneas/metabolismo , Neoplasias Cutáneas/patología , Receptor Smoothened/antagonistas & inhibidores , Receptor Smoothened/genética , Ensayos Antitumor por Modelo de Xenoinjerto , Proteína con Dedos de Zinc GLI1/antagonistas & inhibidores , Proteína con Dedos de Zinc GLI1/genética , Quinasas DyrK