The Internal Ribosome Entry Site-Medaited Expression of VEGF Rescues HS Sultan Tumor Cells From Mammalian Target of Rapamycin (mTOR)-Inhibitors Induced Apoptosis in Vivo

Abstract 1659

An important molecular target of mTOR inhibitors in cancer therapy is VEGF expression and neo-angiogenesis. In prior studies, we demonstrated that, although rapalog mTOR inhibitors only induce G1 arrest in B-cell tumor lines, their administration in vivo in xenograft models resulted in tumor cell apoptosis that correlated with inhibition of neo-angiogenesis and VEGF expression within the tumor bed. Other in vitro studies have shown that IRES-dependent translation of myc and D-cyclins can provide a fail-safe mechanism for expression when mTOR inhibitors prevent cap-dependent translation and may act as a resistance mechanism to induction of G1 arrest in vitro. We, thus, tested if VEGF IRES activity could likewise regulate induction of anti-tumor effects and apoptosis in vivo. To test if VEGF IRES activity can regulate anti-tumor responses in vivo, we utilized the HS-Sultan B cell lymphoma line that is PTEN null. Its heightened AKT activity disarms the VEGF IRES, preventing this fail-safe mechanism and sensitizing to mTOR inhibitors. We ectopically expressed a version of the VEGF ORF in these cells fused to the p27 IRES (p27-VEGF), an IRES which is insensitive to AKT and effective in PTEN-null tumors. p27-VEGF transfected tumor cells were used as subcutaneous challenges in immunodeficient mice and results of mTOR inhibitor treatment compared to control mice challenged with tumor cells transfected with the VEGF ORF but without an AKT-resistant IRES. The anti-tumor responses were enumerated by assessing tumor size and tumor apoptosis, neo-angiogenesis and VEGF expression assessed by immunohistochemistry, ELISA, and Western blot analysis of tumor lysate. Ectopic expression of VEGF fused to the p27 IRES specifically enhanced VEGF expression and neo-angiogenesis in tumors of mice treated with the rapalog temsirolimus or active site mTOR inhibitor pp242 and significantly reduced tumor cell apoptosis and anti-tumor responses. The results confirm the critical role of VEGF expression in tumors during treatment with mTOR inhibitors and, furthermore, underscore the importance of IRES activity as a resistance mechanism to such targeted therapy.