Browsing by Author "Gunning, Patrick T."

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    Applying Small Molecule Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription-3 (STAT3) Protein Inhibitors as Pancreatic Cancer Therapeutics
    (American Association for Cancer Research, 2016-05) Arpin, Carolynn C.; Mac, Stephen; Jiang, Yanlin; Cheng, Huiwen; Grimard, Michelle; Page, Brent D. G.; Kamocka, Malgorzata M.; Haftchenary, Sina; Su, Han; Ball, Daniel; Rosa, David A.; Lai, Ping-Shan; Gómez-Biagi, Rodolfo F.; Ali, Ahmed M.; Rana, Rahul; Hanenberg, Helmut; Kerman, Kagan; McElyea, Kyle C.; Sandusky, George E.; Gunning, Patrick T.; Fishel, Melissa L.; Pediatrics, School of Medicine
    Constitutively activated STAT3 protein has been found to be a key regulator of pancreatic cancer and a target for molecular therapeutic intervention. In this study, PG-S3-001, a small molecule derived from the SH-4-54 class of STAT3 inhibitors, was found to inhibit patient-derived pancreatic cancer cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo in the low micromolar range. PG-S3-001 binds the STAT3 protein potently, Kd = 324 nmol/L by surface plasmon resonance, and showed no effect in a kinome screen (>100 cancer-relevant kinases). In vitro studies demonstrated potent cell killing as well as inhibition of STAT3 activation in pancreatic cancer cells. To better model the tumor and its microenvironment, we utilized three-dimensional (3D) cultures of patient-derived pancreatic cancer cells in the absence and presence of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAF). In this coculture model, inhibition of tumor growth is maintained following STAT3 inhibition in the presence of CAFs. Confocal microscopy was used to verify tumor cell death following treatment of 3D cocultures with PG-S3-001. The 3D model was predictive of in vivo efficacy as significant tumor growth inhibition was observed upon administration of PG-S3-001. These studies showed that the inhibition of STAT3 was able to impact the survival of tumor cells in a relevant 3D model, as well as in a xenograft model using patient-derived cells.
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    Identification and Characterization of AES-135, a Hydroxamic Acid-Based HDAC Inhibitor That Prolongs Survival in an Orthotopic Mouse Model of Pancreatic Cancer
    (ACS, 2019) Shouksmith, Andrew E.; Shah, Fenil; Grimard, Michelle L.; Gawel, Justyna M.; Raouf, Yasir; Geletu, Mulu; Berger-Becvar, Angelika; de Araujo, Elvin D.; Luchman, H. Artee; Heaton, William L.; Bakhshinyan, David; Adile, Ashley A.; Venugopal, Chitra; O'Hare, Thomas; Deininger, Michael W.; Singh, Sheila K.; Konieczny, Stephen F.; Weiss, Samuel; Fishel, Melissa L.; Gunning, Patrick T.; Pediatrics, School of Medicine
    Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an aggressive, incurable cancer with a 20% 1 year survival rate. While standard-of-care therapy can prolong life in a small fraction of cases, PDAC is inherently resistant to current treatments, and novel therapies are urgently required. Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors are effective in killing pancreatic cancer cells in in vitro PDAC studies, and although there are a few clinical studies investigating combination therapy including HDAC inhibitors, no HDAC drug or combination therapy with an HDAC drug has been approved for the treatment of PDAC. We developed an inhibitor of HDACs, AES-135, that exhibits nanomolar inhibitory activity against HDAC3, HDAC6, and HDAC11 in biochemical assays. In a three-dimensional coculture model, AES-135 kills low-passage patient-derived tumor spheroids selectively over surrounding cancer-associated fibroblasts and has excellent pharmacokinetic properties in vivo. In an orthotopic murine model of pancreatic cancer, AES-135 prolongs survival significantly, therefore representing a candidate for further preclinical testing.