Inhibition of Human Plasmacytoma Cell Growth by a Novel JAK Kinase Inhibitor.

Novel strategies in cancer therapy aim at inhibiting distinct signal transduction pathways that are aberrantly activated in malignant cells. Protein tyrosine kinases of the JAK family are associated with a number of cytokine and cytokine-like hormone receptors and regulate important cellular functions such as proliferation, survival, and differentiation. Constitutive or enhanced JAK activation has been implicated in neoplastic transformation and abnormal cell proliferation in various hematological malignancies. In multiple myeloma (MM), JAK kinases play a critical role because of their association with cytokine receptors of the IL-6/gp130 family. A novel small-molecule inhibitor was developed that shows a 100 to 1,000-fold selectivity for JAK1, JAK2, JAK3, and TYK2 relative to other kinases including Abl, Aurora, c-Raf, FGFR3, GSK3b, IGF-1R, Lck, PDGFRa, PKBb, and Zap-70. Growth of MM cell lines and primary patient cells was inhibited by this compound in a dose-dependent manner. The IL-6 dependent cell line INA-6 and derived sublines were sensitive to the drug, with IC₅₀’s of less than 1 mM, in [³H]-thymidine uptake and a colorimetric, tetrazolium compound (MTS) based assay (CellTiter 96® Aqueous One Solution Cell Proliferation Assay, Promega, Madison, WI). Importantly, INA-6 and patient tumor cell growth was also inhibited in the presence of bone marrow stromal cells, which by themselves remained largely unaffected. Growth suppression of INA-6 correlated with a significant and dose-dependent increase in the percentage of apoptotic cells, as evaluated by Apo2.7 staining after 48 hours of drug treatment. In addition, the compound blocked IL-6 induced phosphorylation of STAT3, a direct downstream target of JAK kinases and important transcription factor triggering anti-apoptotic pathways. In other myeloma cell lines, the drug overcame the protective effect of gp130 cytokines on dexamethasone induced apoptosis. In MM1.S cells, it completely blocked IL-6 induced phosphorylation of SHP-2 and AKT, both known to mediate the protective effects of IL-6. In contrast, AKT phosphorylation induced by IGF-1 remained unchanged, demonstrating selectivity of the compound. These studies show that disruption of JAK kinase activity and downstream signaling pathways inhibits myeloma cell growth and survival as well as circumvents drug resistance, thereby providing the conceptual basis for the use of JAK kinase inhibitors as a novel therapeutic approach in MM.