Molecular mechanisms underlying adaptive targeted therapy resistance in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) are poorly understood. Here, we identify SETD5 as a major driver of PDAC resistance to ...MEK1/2 inhibition (MEKi). SETD5 is induced by MEKi resistance and its deletion restores refractory PDAC vulnerability to MEKi therapy in mouse models and patient-derived xenografts. SETD5 lacks histone methyltransferase activity but scaffolds a co-repressor complex, including HDAC3 and G9a. Gene silencing by the SETD5 complex regulates known drug resistance pathways to reprogram cellular responses to MEKi. Pharmacological co-targeting of MEK1/2, HDAC3, and G9a sustains PDAC tumor growth inhibition in vivo. Our work uncovers SETD5 as a key mediator of acquired MEKi therapy resistance in PDAC and suggests a context for advancing MEKi use in the clinic.
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•SETD5 is an epigenetic driver of pancreatic cancer resistance to MEK1/2 inhibition•SETD5 has no intrinsic methylation activity on histones, including at H3 lysine 36•A SETD5 co-repressor complex regulates a network of drug resistance pathways•Co-targeting of MEK1/2 and the SETD5 complex results in sustained tumor inhibition
In pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), a major roadblock in therapies targeting the KRAS-MAPK pathway, such as MEK1/2 inhibition (MEKi), is the rapid emergence of resistance. Wang et al. identify a clinically actionable epigenetic pathway mediated by SETD5 to drive PDAC resistance to MEKi.
We continue the work initiated by the first named author in Induced maps on n-fold symmetric product suspensions, Topology Appl. 158 (2011), 1192-1205. We consider classes of maps not included in the ...mentioned paper, namely: almost monotone, atriodic, freely decomposable, joining, monotonically refinable, refinable, semi-confluent, semi-open, simple and strongly freely decomposable maps.
The high frequency of activating RAS or BRAF mutations in cancer provides strong rationale for targeting the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway. Selective BRAF and MAP-ERK kinase (MEK) ...inhibitors have shown clinical efficacy in patients with melanoma. However, the majority of responses are transient, and resistance is often associated with pathway reactivation of the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling pathway. Here, we describe the identification and characterization of SCH772984, a novel and selective inhibitor of ERK1/2 that displays behaviors of both type I and type II kinase inhibitors. SCH772984 has nanomolar cellular potency in tumor cells with mutations in BRAF, NRAS, or KRAS and induces tumor regressions in xenograft models at tolerated doses. Importantly, SCH772984 effectively inhibited MAPK signaling and cell proliferation in BRAF or MEK inhibitor-resistant models as well as in tumor cells resistant to concurrent treatment with BRAF and MEK inhibitors. These data support the clinical development of ERK inhibitors for tumors refractory to MAPK inhibitors.
Resistance to RAF- and MEK-targeted therapy is a major clinical challenge. RAF and MEK inhibitors are initially but only transiently effective in some but not all patients with BRAF gene mutation and ...are largely ineffective in those with RAS gene mutation because of resistance. Through a genetic screen in BRAF-mutant tumor cells, we show that the Hippo pathway effector YAP (encoded by YAP1) acts as a parallel survival input to promote resistance to RAF and MEK inhibitor therapy. Combined YAP and RAF or MEK inhibition was synthetically lethal not only in several BRAF-mutant tumor types but also in RAS-mutant tumors. Increased YAP in tumors harboring BRAF V600E was a biomarker of worse initial response to RAF and MEK inhibition in patients, establishing the clinical relevance of our findings. Our data identify YAP as a new mechanism of resistance to RAF- and MEK-targeted therapy. The findings unveil the synthetic lethality of combined suppression of YAP and RAF or MEK as a promising strategy to enhance treatment response and patient survival.
MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) pathways have been implicated in stress signalling in plants. In the present study, we performed yeast two-hybrid screening to identify partner MAPKs for OsMKK ...(Oryza sativa MAPK kinase) 6, a rice MAPK kinase, and revealed specific interactions of OsMKK6 with OsMPK3 and OsMPK6. OsMPK3 and OsMPK6 each co-immunoprecipitated OsMKK6, and both were directly phosphorylated by OsMKK6 in vitro. An MBP (myelin basic protein) kinase assay of the immunoprecipitation complex indicated that OsMPK3 and OsMPK6 were activated in response to a moderately low temperature (12°C), but not a severely low temperature (4°C) in rice seedlings. A constitutively active form of OsMKK6, OsMKK6DD, showed elevated phosphorylation activity against OsMPK3 and OsMPK6 in vitro. OsMPK3, but not OsMPK6, was constitutively activated in transgenic plants overexpressing OsMKK6DD, indicating that OsMPK3 is an in vivo target of OsMKK6. Enhanced chilling tolerance was observed in the transgenic plants overexpressing OsMKK6DD. Taken together, our data suggest that OsMKK6 and OsMPK3 constitute a moderately low-temperature signalling pathway and regulate cold stress tolerance in rice.
Activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway is frequent in cancer. Drug development efforts have been focused on kinases in this pathway, most notably on RAF and MEK. We show ...here that MEK inhibition activates JNK-JUN signaling through suppression of DUSP4, leading to activation of HER Receptor Tyrosine Kinases. This stimulates the MAPK pathway in the presence of drug, thereby blunting the effect of MEK inhibition. Cancers that have lost MAP3K1 or MAP2K4 fail to activate JNK-JUN. Consequently, loss-of-function mutations in either MAP3K1 or MAP2K4 confer sensitivity to MEK inhibition by disabling JNK-JUN-mediated feedback loop upon MEK inhibition. In a panel of 168 Patient Derived Xenograft (PDX) tumors, MAP3K1 and MAP2K4 mutation status is a strong predictor of response to MEK inhibition. Our findings suggest that cancers having mutations in MAP3K1 or MAP2K4, which are frequent in tumors of breast, prostate and colon, may respond to MEK inhibitors. Our findings also suggest that MAP3K1 and MAP2K4 are potential drug targets in combination with MEK inhibitors, in spite of the fact that they are encoded by tumor suppressor genes.
In this paper, a novel grayscale image cryptosystem based on hybrid chaotic maps is proposed. The scheme employs both confusion phase to scramble the location of pixels and diffusion phase for ...changing the content of pixels in consecutive manner. In this scheme, Arnold’s cat map is introduced to perform confusion operation and the principle of diffusion is achieved by using the proper selection of combined Sine map, Logistic map, and Tent map. Furthermore, exclusive OR (XOR), exchange, and transform operations are used to enhance the efficiency of diffusion phase. Accordingly, the use of chaotic maps and XOR operation provides a dual layer of security. Depending on the average absolute value of horizontal, vertical, and diagonal correlation coefficient of plain image as well as bifurcation properties of chaotic maps, one of the mentioned chaotic maps is selected for diffusion phase. First, original gray scale image matrix is extended to square matrix by adding the sequences generated with proper chaotic maps to implement the first step of diffusion phase. Then the Arnold’s cat map changes pixels location of new extended matrix by means of certain equation as confusion phase. The encrypted image is generated after applying XOR, exchange and transform operations on the content of pixels as second step of diffusion phase. Thus the system is able to build several more complicated chaotic structures. In addition the encryption and decryption processing time directly depend on the value of correlation coefficient of original image. Plain images with less correlation coefficient have less encryption and decryption processing time, and vice versa. Compared with several existing methods, the proposed scheme has more better properties, including wider chaotic ranges and more complex chaotic behavior. Experimental results show that the proposed system has proper encryption and decryption processing time, unified average changing intensity (UACI), number of pixel change rate (NPCR), and extensive security analysis for kind of images.
In Arabidopsis thaliana, the MEKK1-MKK1/MKK2-MPK4 mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase cascade represses cell death and immune responses. In mekk1, mkk1 mkk2, and mpk4 mutants, programmed cell ...death and defense responses are constitutively activated, but the mechanism by which MEKK1, MKK1/MKK2, and MPK4 negatively regulate cell death and immunity was unknown. From a screen for suppressors of mkk1 mkk2, we found that mutations in suppressor of mkk1 mkk2 1 (summ1) suppress the cell death and defense responses not only in mkk1 mkk2 but also in mekk1 and mpk4. SUMM1 encodes the MAP kinase kinase kinase MEKK2. It interacts with MPK4 and is phosphorylated by MPK4 in vitro. Overexpression of SUMM1 activates cell death and defense responses that are dependent on the nucleotide bindingleucine-rich repeat protein SUMM2. Taken together, our data suggest that the MEKK1-MKK1/MKK2-MPK4 kinase cascade negatively regulates MEKK2 and activation of MEKK2 triggers SUMM2-mediated immune responses.