Interaction Of Myc And Sumoylation Machinery In An Aggressive Pancreatic Cancer Subtype

Despite recent improvements in treatment regimen such as combination chemotherapies, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma still carries a dismal prognosis with an overall survival rate of 9%. The oncogenic transcription factor MYC is amplified in about 12% of all PDAC, which is connected to a worse survival. It is clear that hyperactivation of MYC generates dependencies that can be exploited therapeutically. Therefore, the aim of the study was to find and to target MYC-associated dependencies. Human PDAC gene expression data sets were analyzed. Moreover, analysis of the SUMO pathway in large cohort of PDAC was performed by IHC. Furthermore, a novel, pharmacological SUMO inhibitor was used and characterized by using human and murine 2D-, organoid-, and in vivo-models of PDAC. In addition, this connection was also verified by the genetically modified human and murine models. Large-scale gene expression datasets of human PDACs analysis revealed a connection of MYC to the SUMOylation machinery in PDAC. Moreover, results were also corroborated by the hyperactivation of SUMO pathway in a large patient cohort which characterized a PDAC subtype with a dismal prognosis. We furthermore corroborated these results by using the novel SUMO inhibitor ML093 by in vitro studies that hyperactivation of MYC is connected to an increased sensitivity to pharmacological SUMO inhibition. In conclusion, SUMO inhibitor-based therapies should be further developed for an aggressive PDAC subtype. Citation Format: Zonera Hassan, Alex Biederstadt, Christian Schneeweis, Markus Schick, Nilsson Jonas, Mathias Wirth, Andrea Coluccio, Felix Orben, Katja Steiger, Jolanta Slawska, Steve Langston, Dieter Saur, Roland Rad, Maximilian Reichert, Guenter Schneider, Ulrich Keller. Interaction of MYC and SUMOylation machinery in an aggressive pancreatic cancer subtype [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 1793.