Induction of Early G1-Arrest by CDK4/CDK6 Inhibition Sensitizes Mantle Cell Lymphoma Cells to Selective PI3Kδ Inhibition by GS-1101 Through Enhancing the Magnitude and Duration of p-AKT Inhibition

Abstract 791

The phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) signaling pathway is constitutively activated at a high frequency in human cancer. As the first PI3K-specific inhibitor, GS-1101 (CAL-101) selectively targets p110δ (PI3Kδ). It has emerged as a promising single-agent therapy for chronic lymphocytic leukemia and indolent lymphomas. For aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma such as mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), efficacy has been observed but the extent and duration of tumor control has been modest, encouraging development of mechanism-based combination therapy.

Since cell cycle dysregulation is frequently amplified in relapse/refractory diseases, we hypothesize that targeting the cell cycle may sensitize non-indolent lymphomas to inhibition of PI3Kδ by GS-1101, and test this hypothesis in MCL based on the following: 1) dysregulated cyclin D1 and CDK4 expression is a primary cause for unrestrained cell cycle progression and proliferation in MCL; 2) by induction of prolonged early G1 arrest (pG1) through selective inhibition of CDK4/CDK6 with PD 0332991 we have recently developed a novel strategy that both inhibits proliferation of tumor cells and sensitizes them to cytotoxic killing; and 3) induction of pG1 by PD 0332991 demonstrated encouraging clinical activity and an excellent toxicity profile in a phase I single-agent study in MCL.

To test this hypothesis, we first demonstrate by whole transcriptome sequencing (WTS, RNA-Seq) that PI3Kδ is the predominant PI3K catalytic subunit expressed, and that only few non-synonymous single-nucleotide variants are present in the coding sequences of genes in the PI3K-AKT pathway in primary MCL tumor cells (N=10), including the analyzed PI3K subunits, AKT1, PTEN and PDK1. Moreover, despite a multitude of genetic abnormalities, mutations in the coding regions of core G1-cell cycle genes, including cyclin D1, CDK4, and CDK4/6 inhibitors CDKN2C (p18^INK4c) and CDKN2D (p19^INK4d) are also rare in primary MCL cells. Analysis of protein expression by immunoblotting has confirmed the WTS analysis and further demonstrated that AKT is constitutively phosphorylated on serine 473 by mTORC2 (p-AKT) downstream of PI3K in primary MCL cells. These findings reinforce the rationale for combining selective inhibition of PI3Kδ with selective inhibition of CDK4/CDK6 in targeting MCL.

GS-1101 treatment does not result in cell cycle arrest in proliferating MCL cell lines (N=6), including Jeko-1 and MAVER-1 cells, which recapitulate the expression of PI3K and G1 cell cycle genes in primary MCL cells based on WTS and immunoblot analyses. GS-1101 transiently reduces p-AKT in proliferating MCL cells, confirming that MCL cells are intrinsically responsive to GS-1101 but also implying a potential mechanism for resistance. Prior induction of pG1 by selective inhibition of CDK4/CDK6 with PD 0332991 reduces p-AKT, amplifies and sustains the loss of p-AKT, and enhances apoptosis in response to GS-1101. Finally, validating the G1 cell cycle-dependence of GS-1101 killing, all primary MCL cells tested are responsive to PI3Kδ inhibition by GS-1101 when they are arrested in early G1 ex vivo in stromal co-culture. This loss of viability is accelerated at a reduced GS-1101 concentration when G1 arrest is accelerated by PD 0332991, despite the presence of cytokines and growth factors that are known to activate PI3K.

This study presents the first sequential combination of selective inhibition of CDK4/CDK6 with a selective partner, the PI3Kδ-specific inhibitor GS-1101, in primary human cancer cells, and the first WTS-validated therapeutic strategy that leads to sensitization of MCL cells by cell cycle control and PI3K inhibition. Our data demonstrate, for the first time, that the magnitude and duration of GS-1101 killing is G1 cell cycle-dependent, and suggest a strategy to sensitize proliferating lymphoma cells to selective PI3Kδ inhibition by induction of early G1-arrest through CDK4/CDK6-specific inhibition.