Preclinical Validation Of An Omomyc Cell-Penetrating Peptide As A Viable Anti-Myc Therapy

Deregulation of the MYC oncoprotein promotes tumorigenesis in most, if not all, cancers and is often associated with poor prognosis. However, targeting MYC has long been considered impossible based on the assumption that it would cause catastrophic side effects in normal tissues. Despite this general preconceived notion, we showed that MYC inhibition exerts extraordinary therapeutic impact in various genetic mouse models of cancer, and causes only mild, well-tolerated and reversible side effects. For these studies we employed the systemic and conditional expression of a dominant negative of MYC, called Omomyc, which we designed and validated, and that can inhibit MYC transactivation function both in vitro and in vivo. To date, Omomyc has only been considered a proof of principle, with any potential clinical application limited to gene therapy. Here we actually show that the 11 kDa Omomyc polypeptide spontaneously transduces into cancer cells, demonstrating unexpected cell-penetrating ability. Once inside the nuclei, the polypeptide effectively blocks MYC binding to its target DNA sites, interfering with MYC transcriptional regulation and halting cell proliferation. Moreover, intranasal (i.n.) administration of the Omomyc polypeptide in mice results in its rapid and persistent distribution to lungs, as well as to other organs (i.e. intestine, liver, kidneys and brain). Importantly, i.n. treatment of mice bearing either Non-Small-Cell-Lung-Cancer (NSCLC) or glioblastoma (GBM) with the Omomyc cell-penetrating peptide (Omomyc CPP ) significantly reduces tumor burden compared to their control counterparts. Notably, tumor regression is accompanied by significant reprogramming of the tumor microenvironment and tumor immune response. In summary, our data indicate that this novel generation of polypeptides represents a new opportunity to potentially inhibit MYC pharmacologically in a variety of malignant diseases. Citation Format: Marie-eve Beaulieu, Toni Jauset, Daniel Masso-Valles, Peter Rahl, Sandra Martinez-Martin, Loika Maltais, Mariano F. Zacarias-Fluck, Silvia Casacuberta, Erika Serrano del Pozo, Christopher Fiore, Laia Foradada, Matthew Guenther, Eduardo Romero Sanz, Marta Oteo Vives, Cynthia Tremblay, Martin Montagne, Miguel Angel Morcillo Alonso, Jonathan R. Whitfield, Pierre Lavigne, Laura Soucek. Preclinical validation of an Omomyc cell-penetrating peptide as a viable anti-Myc therapy [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 2167. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-2167