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Drug discovery, drug resistance

Session: Poster Session

DDDR-32 - Evaluating the therapeutic effects of small molecule inhibitors of CDK4/6 and FAK in preclinical meningioma models

Friday, November 17, 2023
7:30 PM – 9:30 PM PT
Location: Exhibit Hall A/B
Non-CME
Background: New therapies are needed for meningioma since treatment options are limited once patients have exhausted surgery and radiation. FAK, CDK4/6 and RAF/MEK represent potential targets because of synthetic lethality with NF2, loss of CDKN2A, and activation of MAPK signaling pathway in meningioma, respectively. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of targeting FAK, CDK4/6 and RAF/MEK as monotherapies and combination therapies in traditional and patient-derived cell lines and xenografts.

Methods: In vitro, cell viability and proliferation assays were used to test abemaciclib (CDK4/6 inhibitor), defactinib (FAK inhibitor) and VS-6766 (RAF/MEK inhibitor) as monotherapy and in combination. To better recapitulate the meningioma microenvironment, targeted agents were evaluated with Matrigel, an artificial extracellular matrix. The efficacy of VS-4718 (in vivo formulation of defactinib) and abemaciclib were evaluated in a subcutaneous IOMM-lee meningioma model (having CDKN2A loss) in nude mice. Furthermore, we are establishing cell cultures and patient-derived cell and xenograft (PDX) models using freshly-resected tissue from patients with recurrent or high-grade (WHO grade 2-3) meningiomas.

Results: In vitro evaluation identified the combination of defactinib with abemaciclib resulted in a synergistic decrease in cell viability relative to each monotherapy alone, while the combination of defactinib+VS-6766 was not beneficial. The presence of Matrigel enhanced the sensitivity of all three agents. In vivo, we observed improved survival in mice treated with abemaciclib vs control (45 days vs 26 days; p=0.03), as well as combination of VS-4718 + abemaciclib vs control (44 days vs 26 days; p=0.04, Gehan-Breslow-Wilcoxon test). We did not observe survival extension with VS-4718 monotherapy. Lastly, we successfully established an orthotopic meningioma PDX using a WHO Grade 3 tumor for evaluation of novel therapies in meningioma.

Conclusion: Abemaciclib showed promising efficacy in preclinical meningioma xenografts with CDKN2A loss. Studies to evaluate these therapies in other orthotopic models are underway.