Abstract 1761: PDE10, a novel therapeutic target for lung cancer

Abstract Phosphodiesterase 10A (PDE10) is a relatively new PDE isozyme that has been mostly studied in the brain as a therapeutic target for certain psychiatric and neurological conditions, but has not been associated with tumorigenesis. While other investigators have reported low levels of PDE10 in most adult peripheral tissues, we found a large percentage of human lung tumors express high levels of PDE10 compared with normal lung tissue as determined by real-time PCR analysis of cDNA arrays. Statistical analysis revealed that 68% of lung tumors (n=19) displayed more than two-fold increase compared with normal lung tissue, while 26% showed greater than a 10-fold difference. High levels of PDE10 mRNA and protein were also found in human non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines compared with normal airway epithelial cells. PDE10 knockdown by small interference RNA significantly suppressed lung tumor cell growth, as did PDE10 selective inhibitors, papaverine, PQ-10 and Pf-2545920. A novel PDE10 inhibitor, MCI-020 also inhibited the growth of NSCLC cells with a high degree of selectivity for tumor cells. Consistent with a mechanism involving PDE10 inhibition, PQ-10 and MCI-020 increased cGMP levels in a concentration-dependent manner as determined using a cGMP biosensor assay. MCI-020 also activated cGMP-dependent protein kinase (PKG) in NSCLCs as evident by increased phosphorylation of VASP-Serine239. With attractive pharmacokinetic properties, MCI-020 was studied further and found to display an unusual characteristic of achieving high concentrations in lung tissue compared with other tissues and plasma following oral administration. MCI-020 was well tolerated in mice at a dose of 250 mg/kg bid and strongly inhibited tumor formation in an orthotopic model of lung cancer at a dose of 150 mg/kg bid. These observations suggest that PDE10 is essential for lung tumor cell growth and represents a novel therapeutic target for lung cancer. Citation Format: Bing Zhu, Nan Li, Veronica Ramirez-Alcantara, Joshua Canzoneri, Evrim Gurpinar, Alexandra Fajardo, Kevin Lee, Sara Sigler, Bernard Gary, Meagan Thomas, Adam Keeton, Xi Chen, William Grizzle, Gary Piazza. PDE10, a novel therapeutic target for lung cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 1761. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-1761