Activity of the Aurora Kinase Inhibitor, MLN8237 (alisertib) Alone or in Combination with Ponatinib Against Imatinib-Resistant BCR-ABL-Positive Cells

Abstract 1333

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is characterized by cytogenetic aberration (Philadelphia chromosome: Ph) and chimeric tyrosine kinase BCR-ABL. ABL tyrosine kinase inhibitor, imatinib has demonstrated the potency against CML patients. However, resistance to imatinib can develop in CML patients due to BCR-ABL point mutations. One of T315I mutation is resistant to currently available ABL tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Therefore, new approach against T315I mutant may improve the outcome of Ph-positive leukemia patients. Aurora kinases are serine/threonine kinases and upregulated in many malignancies including leukemia, and play an important role in cell cycle control and tumor proliferations. Because Aurora kinases are overexpressed in leukemia cells, Aurora kinases may present attractive targets for leukemia treatment. One of Aurora kinase inhibitor, MLN8237 (alisertib) is an oral and selective Aurora kinase A inhibitor and is currently being investigated in a pivotal phase 3 clinical trial against hematological malignancies. We suggested that alisertib mediated inhibition Aurora kinase activity and in combination with ponatinib, also known as AP24534 may abrogate the proliferation and survival of Ph-positive cells including T315I mutation. In this study, we investigated the combination therapy with a ponatinib and an alisertib by using the BCR-ABL positive cell line, K562, murine Ba/F3 cell line which was transfected with T315I mutant, ponatinib resistant Ba/F3 cells and T315I primary sample. Protein expression of Aurora A and B were increased in Ph-positive leukemia cells. 72 hours treatment of alisertib exhibits cell growth inhibition and induced apoptosis against K562 cells in a dose dependent manner. Alisertib also induced cell cycle arrest. The treatment of ponatinib exhibits cell growth inhibition partially against K562 cells in the presence of feeder cell (HS-5) conditioned media. We found that the treatment of alisertib abrogated the protective effects of HS-5 conditioned media in K562 cells. We investigated the alisertib activity against T315I positive cells. Alisertib potently induced cell growth inhibition of Ba/F3 cells ectopically expressing T315I mutation and induced cell cycle arrest. We investigated the efficacy between ponatinib and alisertib by using these cell lines. Combined treatment of Ba/F3 T315I cells with ponatinib and alisertib caused significantly more cytotoxicity than each drug alone. Ponatinib and alisertib were also effective against T315I primary samples. We examined the intracellular signaling of alisertib. Phosphorylation of Aurora A was inhibited in a time dependent manner. We also found the phosphorylation of histone H3 was also reduced in a dose dependent manner suggested that high concentration of alisertib also inhibits Aurora B activity. We next investigated by using ponatinib resistant Ba/F3 cells. In the ponatinib resistant cell lines, IC50 of ponatinib was up to 200 nM. BCR-ABL triple point mutations (T315I, E255K and Y253H) were detected by direct sequence analysis. The treatment of alisertib exhibits cell growth inhibition against Ba/F3 ponatinib resistant cells in the dose dependent manner. Alisertib induced cell cycle arrest in ponatinib resistant cells. Combined treatment of Ba/F3 ponatinib resistant cells with ponatinib and alisertib caused significantly more cytotoxicity. To assess the activity of alisertib and ponatinib, we performed to test on CML tumor formation in mice. We injected nude mice subcutaneously with 1×10⁷ Ba/F3 T315I cells. A dose of 30 mg/kg/day p.o of ponatinib and 30 mg/kg/day p.o of alisertib inhibited tumor growth and reduced tumor volume compared with control mice. The treatments were well tolerated with no animal health concerns observed indicating the feasibility of alisertib combination strategies in the clinic. Data from this study suggested that administration of the ponatinib and Aurora inhibitor, alisertib may be a powerful strategy against BCR-ABL mutant cells including T315I.