[PDF][PDF] Dependence on the pyrimidine biosynthetic enzyme DHODH is a synthetic lethal vulnerability in mutant KRAS-driven cancers

M Koundinya, J Sudhalter, A Courjaud, B Lionne… - Cell chemical …, 2018 - cell.com
M Koundinya, J Sudhalter, A Courjaud, B Lionne, G Touyer, L Bonnet, I Menguy, I Schreiber…
Cell chemical biology, 2018cell.com
Activating KRAS mutations are major oncogenic drivers in multiple tumor types. Synthetic
lethal screens have previously been used to identify targets critical for the survival of KRAS
mutant cells, but their application to drug discovery has proven challenging, possibly due in
part to a failure of monolayer cultures to model tumor biology. Here, we report the results of a
high-throughput synthetic lethal screen for small molecules that selectively inhibit the growth
of KRAS mutant cell lines in soft agar. Chemoproteomic profiling identifies the target of the …
Summary
Activating KRAS mutations are major oncogenic drivers in multiple tumor types. Synthetic lethal screens have previously been used to identify targets critical for the survival of KRAS mutant cells, but their application to drug discovery has proven challenging, possibly due in part to a failure of monolayer cultures to model tumor biology. Here, we report the results of a high-throughput synthetic lethal screen for small molecules that selectively inhibit the growth of KRAS mutant cell lines in soft agar. Chemoproteomic profiling identifies the target of the most KRAS-selective chemical series as dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH). DHODH inhibition is shown to perturb multiple metabolic pathways. In vivo preclinical studies demonstrate strong antitumor activity upon DHODH inhibition in a pancreatic tumor xenograft model.
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