Abstract 4915: Sensitivity to NAMPT inhibition: In vitro and in vivo characterization in ovarian cancer

Abstract Previous in vitro work on determining the unique sensitivities of various cancers to nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase inhibitors (NAMPTis) has demonstrated promising effects of treating cancer cells with NAMPTis such as FK866 and KPT9274. These inhibitors act by disrupting cellular energy metabolism and reducing intracellular NAD+ levels. NAMPT inhibition thereby suppresses the proliferation of cancer cells which depend more heavily on the NAMPT enzyme to produce NAD+ than noncancerous cells. Using pan-cancer in vitro screens in a large panel of molecularly characterized cell lines (n = 496) we identified a subset of ovarian cancer, a cancer with a high unmet need due to lack of diverse targeted therapies, as being extremely sensitive to NAMPT inhibition. Subsequent in vivo work using CD-1 nude mice demonstrate that NAMPT inhibitors can successfully reduce the ovarian tumor burden and may be an effective treatment option of some ovarian cancers. Moreover, NAD+’s function as a substrate to the poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) enzyme makes NAMPTis rational candidates for including in combination therapies with PARP inhibitors, several of which are approved for maintenance therapy for ovarian cancer. By using NAMPTis to disrupt the cellular metabolic process while simultaneously inhibiting PARP activity, an essential DNA damage repair enzyme, it is possible to exploit the dependence of ovarian cancer cells on functional PARP activity. This is particularly important in homologous recombination deficient subtypes. In addition to a synergistic growth inhibitory response in ovarian cancer cells, preclinical combination studies of NAMPTis with olaparib, an approved PARP inhibitor, exhibited higher levels of DNA damage accumulation than with single drug treatments. Our in vitro and in vivo characterizations of NAMPT inhibition suggest that NAMPTis as either single agents or in combination treatments with PARP inhibitors should be investigated further as potential treatment options for ovarian cancer patient populations. Citation Format: Jenny J. Hong, Martina S. McDermott, Neil A. O'Brien, Enrique Guandique, Tong Luo, Dennis J. Slamon. Sensitivity to NAMPT inhibition: In vitro and in vivo characterization in ovarian cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 4915.