Our results suggest that combined targeting of the MEK/ERK and PI3K/mTOR pathways has antitumor activity and might serve as a therapeutic option in the treatment of NRAS mutant melanoma, for which there are currently no effective therapies.
Our findings enhance our knowledge of how BRAFV600E and PI3K signaling cooperate in melanomagenesis and provide preclinical validation for combined pathway-targeted inhibition of PI3K and BRAFV600E in the therapeutic management of BRAFV600E/PTENNull melanomas.
The most promising include: i) vertical targeting of either MEK or phosphoinositide-3 kinase (PI3K)/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathways, or their combined blockade; ii) association of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) inhibitors with other pro-apoptotic strategies; iii) engagement of death receptors in combination with MEK-, mTOR/PI3K-, histone deacetylase (HDAC)-inhibitors, or with anti-apoptotic molecules modulators; iv) strategies aimed at blocking anti-apoptotic proteins belonging to B-cell lymphoma (Bcl-2) or inhibitors of apoptosis (IAP) families associated with MEK/BRAF/p38 inhibition; v) co-inhibition of other molecules important for survival [proteasome, HDAC and Signal transducers and activators of transcription (Stat)3] and the major pathways activated in melanoma; vi) simultaneous targeting of multiple anti-apoptotic molecules.
The phosphoinositide-3 kinase (PI3K) pathway is deregulated in a significant proportion of melanomas, and PI3K pathway activation in combination with constitutively active mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling shows synergistic effects in the process of melanoma tumorigenesis.
Thus, the concurrent inhibition of PI3K and MAPK signalling is required to suppress oncogenic c-Kit activity and may provide an effective therapeutic strategy in c-Kit mutant melanomas.
This work demonstrates that increased PI3K pathway activation is a necessary adaption for the continued viability of melanomas with a defective decatenation checkpoint.
We for the first time showed that EIF5A2, as a target of PI3K/Akt, promotes melanoma cell invasion and may serve as a promising prognostic marker and a potential therapeutic target for melanoma.
Although activation of the PI3K/Akt pathway resulting from genetic mutations and epigenetic deregulation of its major regulators is known to cause resistance of melanoma to therapeutic agents, including the conventional chemotherapeutic drug dacarbazine and the Food and Drug Administration-approved mutant BRAF inhibitors vemurafenib and dabrafenib, the role of extracellular stimuli of the pathway, such as insulin, in drug resistance of melanoma remains less understood.
Mutated ERBB4 signaling activates both aberrant ERBB4 and PI3K-AKT signal transduction, mediates sensitivity to small-molecule inhibition with the dual-tyrosine kinase inhibitor lapatinib, and has recently also been implied in oncogenic glutamatergic signaling in melanoma.
Our study further suggests that PIK3CA mutations account for a small fraction of PI3K pathway activation and have a limited impact in interfering with the BRAF/NRAS-driven growth in melanoma.
Downregulation of FOXM1 by siRNA significantly inhibited the proliferation of melanoma cells, and blockade of the MAPK and PI3K/AKT pathways decreased the FOXM1 expression in melanoma cell lines.
CCGs are enriched in Wnt, PI3K, MAPK and netrin signaling pathway components and are more highly connected to one another than predicted by chance, indicating that SB targets cooperative genetic networks in melanoma.
These results suggest that combination therapy with PI3K inhibitors may be a useful strategy to extend the duration of clinical response of patients with BRAF-mutated melanoma to BRAF(V600E) pathway-targeted therapies.
In a synthetic lethal screen, pan-PI3K inhibition synergized with PDK1 inhibition to suppress melanoma growth, suggesting that focused blockade of PDK1/PI3K signaling might offer a new therapeutic modality for wild-type PTEN tumors.
Together, these findings identify PREX2 as a mediator of NRAS-mutant melanoma development that acts through the PI3K/PTEN/Akt pathway to regulate gene expression of a cell cycle regulator.
We demonstrate that SAR260301 blocks PI3K pathway signaling preferentially in PTEN-deficient human tumor models, and has synergistic antitumor activity when combined with vemurafenib (BRAF inhibitor) or selumetinib (MEK inhibitor) in PTEN-deficient/BRAF-mutated human melanoma tumor models.
Through this route, we confirmed Rapamycin as a compound that could synergize with MEKi and even more so with PI3K/mTORi to suppress melanoma development, including suppressing the growth of cultured human melanoma cells.
In this study, we sought to identify the nodes of the PTEN/PI3K pathway that would be amenable to combined therapy with MAPK pathway inhibitors for the treatment of PTEN(LOF)/BRAF(MUT) melanoma.