The novel c-Met inhibitor cabozantinib overcomes gemcitabine resistance and stem cell signaling in pancreatic cancer

• Published in: Cell death & disease Vol. 4; no. 5; p. e627
• Main Authors: Hage, C, Rausch, V, Giese, N, Giese, T, Schönsiegel, F, Labsch, S, Nwaeburu, C, Mattern, J, Gladkich, J, Herr, I
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01-05-2013; Springer Nature B.V; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/67/1059/2326; 631/67/1059/99; 631/67/1504/1713; 631/67/71; Adenocarcinoma; Anilides - pharmacology; Antibodies; Apoptosis; Apoptosis - drug effects; Biochemistry; Biomedical and Life Sciences; c-Met protein; Carcinoma, Pancreatic Ductal - drug therapy; Carcinoma, Pancreatic Ductal - metabolism; Carcinoma, Pancreatic Ductal - pathology; Cell Biology; Cell Culture; Cell Line, Tumor; Cell signaling; Clinical trials; Deoxycytidine - analogs & derivatives; Deoxycytidine - therapeutic use; Down-Regulation; Drug Resistance, Neoplasm - drug effects; Flow cytometry; Gemcitabine; Humans; Immunohistochemistry; Immunology; Kinases; Life Sciences; Malignancy; Original; original-article; Pancreatic cancer; Pancreatic Neoplasms - drug therapy; Pancreatic Neoplasms - metabolism; Pancreatic Neoplasms - pathology; Pluripotency; Protein arrays; Protein-tyrosine kinase receptors; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-met - antagonists & inhibitors; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-met - metabolism; Pyridines - pharmacology; Signal Transduction; SOXB1 Transcription Factors - metabolism; Stem cells; Stem Cells - cytology; Stem Cells - drug effects; Stem Cells - metabolism; Surface markers; Viability; Western blotting; pancreatic cancer; XL184; cancer stem cells
• ISSN: 2041-4889; 2041-4889
• DOI: 10.1038/cddis.2013.158

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is one of the most lethal malignancies. Cancer stem cells (CSCs), which are not targeted by current therapies, may be the reason for pronounced therapy resistance. A new treatment option in phase II trials is cabozantinib that inhibits the pancreatic CSC surface marker and tyrosine kinase receptor c-Met. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of cabozantinib to stem-like features and therapy resistance. Established PDA cell lines, a gemcitabine-resistant subclone, non-malignant pancreatic ductal cells and primary spheroidal cultures from patient tumors were analyzed by MTT-assay, flow cytometry, colony and spheroid formation assays, western blotting, qRT-PCR, antibody protein array, immunohistochemistry and morphological features. Cabozantinib inhibited viability and spheroid formation and induced apoptosis in malignant cells with minor effects in non-malignant cells. After long-term cabozantinib treatment, PDA cells had altered anti- and pro-apoptotic signaling, but still responded to cabozantinib, as apoptosis only slightly decreased and viability only slightly increased suggesting a low resistance-inducing potential of cabozantinib. In parallel, c-Met expression and the pluripotency transcription factor SOX2 were downregulated, which might counteract development of full therapy resistance in long-term treated subclones. In single-treatment studies, cabozantinib increased efficacy of gemcitabine. Most importantly, cabozantinib strongly induced apoptosis and reduced viability in PDA cell lines, which are completely resistant toward gemcitabine. In primary, CSC-enriched spheroidal cultures cabozantinib downregulated CSC markers SOX2, c-Met and CD133 and induced apoptosis. These findings suggest that the clinical use of cabozantinib may be more effective than current chemotherapeutics.