Hedgehog Pathway as a Potential Therapeutic Target in Multiple Myeloma.

We have previously demonstrated that a consistent feature of malignant plasma cells of multiple myeloma (MM) is the aberrant expression of genes important in patterning and development, such as members of Hedghehog (Hh) pathway (FE Davies et al, Blood 2003). These findings suggest that overexpression of genes of this pathway, already involved in many solid tumors and recently implicated in maintaining a proposed MM stem cell compartment (CD Peacock et al, PNAS 2007), might be one of the mechanism through which Hh-signaling contributes to tumorigenesis in MM. Therefore, several small molecule modulators of Hh-pathway, which work as agonists and antagonists, are currently under development. We evaluated, by microarray analysis, the expression of Hh pathway genes in MM cell lines and primary MM cells vs. plasma cells from healthy donors. We found that primary MM cells overexpress Sonic (Shh), Smoothened (Smo), Patched (Ptc), Gli-1 and Gli-3 (relative expression ratios ranging from +1.8 to +5.0). Overexpression of Patched was also observed in most of the MM cell lines analyzed (+5.0 ratio in 5 of 6 MM cell lines). Additionally, we confirmed the expression of Shh and of Gli-1, by flow cytometry and western blotting respectively, in a large panel of MM cell lines. These data suggest an activation of the Hh-pathway in MM that, in some cell lines, is Shh-dependent. Therefore, we investigated the therapeutic potential of Hh-inhibitors in MM. We assayed the cell viability and proliferation, by MTT and Thymidine uptake respectively, in 8 MM cell lines after 72 hours of treatment with the small molecule Smo-inhibitor CUR-0199691 (Genentech). We observed a reduction in MM cell viability, with IC50 values ranging between 4.5–9.5 μM in these 8 cell lines and an inhibition of MM cell proliferation with IC50 values ranging between 0.5 and 2.5μM in the same cell lines. MM cell sensitivity to this compound appears to be related to the level of expression of Gli-1, since the cell lines with lower level of expression of Gli-1 were more sensitive. The treatment of these MM cell lines with Cyclopamine, another Hh-inhibitor, showed an IC50 between 7.5μM and 10μM after at least 96 hours of treatment in 4 of the MM cell lines tested. CUR-0199691 is also active in primary MM cells, triggering inhibition of proliferation by 50% at 5μM after only 24h of treatment, while cyclopamine reduces MM cell proliferation (normalized to the effect of tomatidine, its inactive analog) by 30% at 20μM after a 48 hour treatment. Annexin V-PI staining of Hh inhibitor-treated KMS11 cells, which are one of the most sensitive MM cell lines, showed induction of apoptosis, evidenced by detection of 12 and 15% of MM cells being Annexin V+/PI- after 48h and 72h respectively with 5μM of CUR-0199691. These results, taken together, show that the Hh-pathway is fuctionally active in MM and that the novel Hh pathway inhibitor CUR-0199691 is 4–5 times more effective than cyclopamine in both MM cell lines and primary MM cells. These studies provide the framework for further preclinical evaluation of CUR-0199691 in MM models towards possible future clinical trials.