International Journal of Molecular Sciences (Apr 2021)

Targeting of Deregulated Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling by PRI-724 and LGK974 Inhibitors in Germ Cell Tumor Cell Lines

  • Silvia Schmidtova,
  • Katarina Kalavska,
  • Veronika Liskova,
  • Jana Plava,
  • Svetlana Miklikova,
  • Lucia Kucerova,
  • Miroslava Matuskova,
  • Lucia Rojikova,
  • Zuzana Cierna,
  • Adriana Rogozea,
  • Heiko Konig,
  • Costantine Albany,
  • Michal Mego,
  • Michal Chovanec

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22084263
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 22, no. 8
p. 4263

Abstract

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The majority of patients with testicular germ cell tumors (GCTs) can be cured with cisplatin-based chemotherapy. However, for a subset of patients present with cisplatin-refractory disease, which confers a poor prognosis, the treatment options are limited. Novel therapies are therefore urgently needed to improve outcomes in this challenging patient population. It has previously been shown that Wnt/β-catenin signaling is active in GCTs suggesting that its inhibitors LGK974 and PRI-724 may show promise in the management of cisplatin-refractory GCTs. We herein investigated whether LGK-974 and PRI-724 provide a treatment effect in cisplatin-resistant GCT cell lines. Taking a genoproteomic approach and utilizing xenograft models we found the increased level of β-catenin in 2 of 4 cisplatin-resistant (CisR) cell lines (TCam-2 CisR and NCCIT CisR) and the decreased level of β-catenin and cyclin D1 in cisplatin-resistant NTERA-2 CisR cell line. While the effect of treatment with LGK974 was limited or none, the NTERA-2 CisR exhibited the increased sensitivity to PRI-724 in comparison with parental cell line. Furthermore, the pro-apoptotic effect of PRI-724 was documented in all cell lines. Our data strongly suggests that a Wnt/β-catenin signaling is altered in cisplatin-resistant GCT cell lines and the inhibition with PRI-724 is effective in NTERA-2 CisR cells. Further evaluation of Wnt/β-catenin pathway inhibition in GCTs is therefore warranted.

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