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High-throughput simultaneous screen and counterscreen identifies homoharringtonine as synthetic lethal with von Hippel-Lindau loss in renal cell carcinoma
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

High-throughput simultaneous screen and counterscreen identifies homoharringtonine as synthetic lethal with von Hippel-Lindau loss in renal cell carcinoma

Nicholas C Wolff, Andrea Pavía-Jiménez, Vanina T Tcheuyap, Shane Alexander, Alana Christie, Xian Jin Xie, Noelle S Williams, Payal Kapur, Renée M McKay, James Brugarolas, …
Oncotarget, Vol.6(19), pp.16951-16962
2015
DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.4773
PMID: 26219258
url
https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.4773View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) accounts for 85% of primary renal neoplasms, and is rarely curable when metastatic. Approximately 70% of RCCs are clear-cell type (ccRCC), and in >80% the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) gene is mutated or silenced. We developed a novel, high-content, screening strategy for the identification of small molecules that are synthetic lethal with genes mutated in cancer. In this strategy, the screen and counterscreen are conducted simultaneously by differentially labeling mutant and reconstituted isogenic tumor cell line pairs with different fluorochromes and using a highly sensitive high-throughput imaging-based platform. This approach minimizes confounding factors from sequential screening, and more accurately replicates the in vivo cancer setting where cancer cells are adjacent to normal cells. A screen of ~12,800 small molecules identified homoharringtonine (HHT), an FDA-approved drug for treating chronic myeloid leukemia, as a VHL-synthetic lethal agent in ccRCC. HHT induced apoptosis in VHL-mutant, but not VHL-reconstituted, ccRCC cells, and inhibited tumor growth in 30% of VHL-mutant patient-derived ccRCC tumorgraft lines tested. Building on a novel screening strategy and utilizing a validated RCC tumorgraft model recapitulating the genetics and drug responsiveness of human RCC, these studies identify HHT as a potential therapeutic agent for a subset of VHL-deficient ccRCCs.

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