Preclinical Evaluation of Gilteritinib on NPM1-ALK Driven Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma Cells

Anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) is an aggressive type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) comprising 2-8% of adult and 10-20% of pediatric and adolescent NHL. More than three-fourths of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive ALCL express (nucleophosmin1) NPM1-ALK fusion gene as a result of t(2;5) chromosomal translocation. The self-dimerization of fusion kinase NPM1-ALK mediates constitutive activation of the chimeric tyrosine kinase activity leading to downstream signaling pathways responsible for lymphoma cell proliferation and survival. The current standard treatment regimen for ALK+ ALCL is CHOP (cyclophosphamide, hydroxy doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisone) chemotherapy. Oftentimes, resistance and failure of remission occur with CHOP therapy, making it a suboptimal treatment regimen for many patients. Therefore, an alternative therapeutic approach is warranted to better address the needs of the ALK+ ALCL population. Gilteritinib is a recently FDA approved tyrosine kinase inhibitor for the treatment of FMS-like tyrosine kinase (FLT3) mutation-positive acute myeloid leukemia. Along with inhibition of FLT3, gilteritinib also inhibits other tyrosine kinases such as AXL and ALK. In this study, for the first time, we demonstrated gilteritinib mediated growth inhibitory effects on NPM1-ALK driven ALCL cells. We have used a total of five cell lines in our study: NPM1-ALK endogenously expressing human ALCL cell lines (SUDHL-1, SUP-M2, SR-786, and DEL), and our laboratory generated ectopically overexpressing Ba/F3-FG-NPM1-ALK, a murine cell line. Gilteritinib treatment (5-20 nM) inhibited NPM1-ALK fusion kinase phosphorylation, which resulted in downregulation of downstream survival signaling pathways including AKT, ERK1/2, and STAT3 leading to induced apoptosis and decreased clonogenic survival. Gilteritinib mediated apoptosis was associated with caspase 3/9 and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase cleavage with increased pro-apoptotic protein BAD and decreased anti-apoptotic protein MCL-1. Increased expression of c-Myc is associated with ALK-positive ALCL and gilteritinib treatment decreased c-Myc levels in a dose dependent manner. Cell cycle analysis demonstrated gilteritinib treatment induced cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1 phase with a concomitant decrease in G2/M and S phases. In summary, our preclinical results suggest gilteritinib has therapeutic potential for the treatment of ALCL cells expressing NPM1-ALK and other ALK /ALK-fusion driven hematologic or solid malignancies.