Mazar, Andrew P.

Abstract Metastatic pancreatic cancer patients who previously progressed on nab-paclitaxel/gemcitabine (average of 3 previous lines if treatment) were treated with elraglusib in combination with a rechallenge of this combination. The majority of patients demonstrated a prolonged progression free survival. While this early clinical evidence is highly encouraging, the biological determinants of elraglusib response are unknown. In vitro screens of elraglusib on pancreatic PDX cell lines showed that some tumor cells possess modest intrinsic resistance to elraglusib as measured by LD50 which ranged from 316.9 nM to 1080 nM in a screen of 10 cell lines. To explore this phenomena further, we induced resistance in three cell line models by growing cells in the presence of increasing concentrations of elraglusib. We then sequenced the transcriptome of the parental and resistant lines to identify potential mechanisms of elraglusib resistance. Comparison of RNA sequencing profiles identified upregulation of the Aldo-keto reductase (AKR) family of genes. This upregulation was confirmed by qRT-PCR and by immunoblot demonstrating that AKRs were upregulated at both the transcriptomic and protein level. We further quantified the AKR levels in the remainder of the 10 cell lines and found that many of the more resistant lines had high expression of AKR1C2. However, not all of the resistant lines had high expression which could be because they have a separate mechanism of resistance to elraglusib. A large body of literature has found that AKR genes provide resistance to many other small molecule inhibitors either by direct metabolism or by indirectly relieving oxidative stress. Given these results, we identify aldo-keto reductases as potentially associated with elraglusib resistance, but further investigation is warranted to establish a causal link between AKR and the resistant phenotype. Citation Format: Taylor Weiskittel, Ding Li, Lingling Han, Joseph McDermott, Benedito Caneiro, Hu Li, Daniel Billadeau, Andrew Mazar. Exploring mechanisms of resistance to elraglusib in pancreatic cancer PDX models. [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 3857.

Abstract Elraglusib is a selective GSK-3 inhibitor that has activity on a broad array of neoplasms as well as their immune microenvironment. However the determinants of tumor response have not been elucidated. Here, we use genomic panels of cancer driver genes to predict patient response to elraglusib therapy as measured by RECIST criteria. Patient response in the Phase I 1801 trial (NCT03678883) was matched to genomic data from patient tumors, with 80 cases used to train Machine Learning models and 26 cases reserved as a test set for model evaluation. When predicting response from mutation status alone our models reached a modest accuracy of 65% in the test set, which we attributed to the sparsity of genomic data. To remedy this, we engineered pathway-based features to provide combinatorial information while ensuring feature stability. To select the optimal combination of features, we designed an iterative design process that first randomized feature combinations and then created refined models from the highest performing pathway features. This resulted in several final models with greater than 88% accuracy. We retained several models of similar accuracy to more comprehensively identify potential biomarkers and combinatorial relationships. These models were then interpreted using SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) where we were able to identify highly predictive features for both the entire pan-cancer cohort and specific histologies. We found the feature constructed from the Reactome pathway “Chromatin Modifying Enzymes” frequently occurred in high performing models with a high-ranking SHAP value. This feature included genes such as SMARCA4, HDAC2, and KDM5A, and was negatively associated with patient response. Another frequently observed high-ranking pathway feature with a negative response association was based on the “Innate Immune System” Reactome pathway. Many of the features highlighted in our models were negatively associated with elraglusib response and thus could be general markers of poor prognosis. To address this, we altered our pipeline to test only positively associated features which substantially reduced our feature pool to only 285 features but still produced models with accuracies of up to 81%. Analysis of key features used by these models identified several positive markers of elraglusib including mutations in the POLE gene, which previously has been linked to DNA-damage response deficiency and anti-tumor immune response. In sum, we forecast elraglusib response for a variety of tumor histologies and simultaneously reveal potential mechanisms of elraglusib sensitivity and biological action. In future work we will investigate the utility of using POLE and other identified biomarker candidates to predict the likelihood of patient response to elraglusib, as well as whether our machine learning models will be an effective tool to guide patient stratification. Citation Format: Joseph McDermott, Taylor Weiskittel, Daniel Billadeau, Benedito Carneiro, Hu Li, Andrew Mazar. Elraglusib response prediction and mechanistic discovery using iterative machine learning. [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 5355.

3079 Background: Elraglusib (9-ING-41), a novel inhibitor of GSK-3β, has been evaluated in >230 patients (pts) with advanced malignancies including metastatic melanoma in the 1801 phase 1/2 trial (NCT03678883). Pts with melanoma treated with single agent elraglusib demonstrated clinical benefit including a durable complete response despite multiple prior lines of therapy including checkpoint inhibitors (CPI). Methods: We collected data from numerous -omic modalities in the 1801 trial to characterize markers of elraglusib response with bioinformatics and machine learning (ML). Genomic panels were collected on 105 pts. The most frequent tumor types included colorectal cancer (n=35), pancreas (n=31), lung (n=15) and metastatic melanoma (n=12). Pts were treated with elraglusib as a single agent or in combination with chemotherapy. Pathway based features were generated by quantifying the percent of each Reactome pathway that was mutated. These pathway features were iteratively evaluated for their performance in shallow neural networks predicting patient RECIST with each model using 5-15 randomly selected features at a time. Publicly available genomic data from an anti-PD-1 trial in patients with metastatic melanoma (Hugo et al., 2017) was transformed into pathway-based features and input into the final model to predict elraglusib response in this population. Results: Our final pathway based genomic model for elraglusib response performed with a training accuracy of 93% and a test accuracy of 88% on the 1801 patients. We then tested the model on metastatic melanoma patients who were treated with anti-PD-1 therapy. We found that patients from Hugo et al. were predicted to respond to elraglusib (22/26). In addition, most patients with tumors resistant to anti-PD-1 therapy were also predicted to respond to elraglusib (10/12). Finally, we tested the model on metastatic melanoma patients treated with elraglusib in the 1801 study that had failed CPI and for whom -omic data was available. The model correctly identified 5/5 patients that demonstrated clinical benefit (1 CR, ongoing>1400 days; 4 prolonged OS of 107, 256, 357, and 556 days). Conclusions: We applied robust in-silico modeling developed using 1801 trial data to develop a rationale for the development of elraglusib in the treatment of metastatic melanoma including patients that failed or were refractory to anti-PD-1 treatment. This model correctly identified metastatic melanoma patients in 1801 with good clinical outcomes that had failed prior CPI treatment. Further, we present this in silico approach as a robust way to repurpose prior clinical study genomics and ML modeling for population enrichment during the clinical development of novel drugs. Clinical trial information: NCT03678883 .

e14555 Background: 9-ING-41 (elraglusib) is a novel inhibitor of GSK-3β that has shown early signs of clinical benefit in a phase 1/2 clinical trial (ACT1801; NCT03678883). Early data support a multi-modal mechanism of action for elraglusib that targets both the tumor and immune system. Thus, the discovery and validation of biomarkers of drug sensitivity to elraglusib is a high priority. Here, we take inspiration from the literature on checkpoint inhibitor therapy and explore the potential of cytokines to predict elraglusib clinical response. Methods: Peripheral plasma samples from 59 patients enrolled in the 1801 phase 1/2 trial of elraglusib were assayed for 40 circulating cytokine levels. Patients advanced solid tumors refractory to standard treatments and received either elraglusib (1.0-15.0 mg/kg) as a single agent or in combination with other chemotherapies. Samples were taken from time points prior to elraglusib administration (pre-dose), after cycle 1, or after cycle 2. Each cytokine time point combination was used to stratify patients into high and low categories using an optimal cut-point determined using maximally selected rank statistics. Kaplan Meier and Cox Proportional Hazards analysis was used to determine the efficacy of each cytokine as a biomarker. The change in cytokine values between pre-dose and cycle 1 or pre-dose and cycle 2 was evaluated in a similar manner. Results: A total of 142 samples spanning eight different tumor histologies were collected and analyzed. A total of 240 cytokine-timepoint combinations were evaluated, and 53 significantly stratified patients by overall survival (p-value < 0.05). Of those, 35 showed that higher levels of the given cytokine correlated with a survival benefit and 18 a survival decrease. Notable among the cytokines demonstrating survival benefits were Granzyme B at Cycle 1 Day 4 (HR: 9.54, p-value:0.015) and TGF β at Cycle 1 Day 4 (HR: 8.48, p-value:0.0063). Strong hazard ratios were also observed for cytokines that correlated with survival decreases including TRAIL-R2 at Cycle 1 Day 2 (HR: 9.56e-02, p-value:0.0001), and IL-10 at Cycle 1 Day 4 (HR: 8.77e-02, p-value:0.007). Delta between timepoints was also able to stratifying patients by overall survival. Conclusions: Plasma cytokine profiling is a promising approach for discovery and validation of biomarkers prognostic for elraglusib clinical benefit. Numerous cytokines measured pre-dose stratified patients into significant survival groups suggesting a potential strategy for patient enrichment in clinical trials of elraglusib. These initial findings are being expanded by 1) increasing the cohort to accommodate histology specific investigations; 2) examining which cytokines are elraglusib response-specific versus drug-agnostic; and 3) combining cytokines in multivariate and machine learning models for optimal predictive capacity. Clinical trial information: NCT03678883 .

Abstract 9-ING-41 (elraglusib) is a potent and selective GSK-3 inhibitor that has shown anti-tumor activity in patient-derived xenograft models and phase1/2 clinical studies in patients (pts) with advanced solid tumors. Preclinical studies have demonstrated that elraglusib downregulates PD-1, TIGIT and LAG-3, upregulates expression of MHC class I proteins in tumor cells from “cold tumors”, and shows synergy when combined with PD-1 blockade in mouse xenografts. Clinical activity has been observed both as a single agent and in combination with standard of care chemotherapies in several advanced cancer histologies. Here we present initial ‘omics data from our phase 1/2 study (NCT03678883; ACT1801) spanning &gt;100 pts with advanced cancer evaluating both single agent and chemotherapy combinations. The patients (pts) included in this study received elraglusib as a ≥3rd line therapy for advanced disease. Most pts with melanoma treated with elraglusib monotherapy (8/9; 89%) stayed on study for &gt;2 cycles. One patient with melanoma refractory to checkpoint inhibitors achieved a confirmed and durable CR. Clinical benefit was also observed among pts with colorectal cancer with 4/12 (33.3%) pts treated with monotherapy and 12/15 (80%) that received elraglusib plus irinotecan rechallenge stayed on study &gt;2 cycles reaching median overall survival of 106 and 211 days, respectively. Based on emerging in vivo and in vitro results demonstrating that elraglusib activates T and NK cells promoting anti-tumor immune responses, we hypothesize immunomodulation by elraglusib may be contributing to anti-tumor immune response in the 1801 trial. We have acquired TCRseq and RNAseq profiles of PBMC samples from seven patients in 1801 during the first two weeks of treatment with elraglusib monotherapy. In these pts, reduced TCR clonality was observed and specific TCR clonotypes expanded after treatment, indicating T cell activation and expansion. These pts also showed changes in PBMC populations during elraglusib therapy as measured by immune deconvolution of PBMC RNAseq. Taken together, these data support a novel, previously unrecognized immunomodulatory mechanism of action for elraglusib and could provide rationale for future clinical development of elraglusib in pts with advanced malignancies. Additional analysis from TCRseq, immune profiling and cytokine analysis from expanded cohort of pts is ongoing. Citation Format: Taylor Weiskittel, Joseph McDermott, Daniel Billadeau, Hu Li, Anwaar Saeed, Devalingam Mahalingam, Solmaz Sahebjam, Pamela Munster, Ludimila Cavalcante, Frank J. Giles, Andrew Mazar, Benedito Carneiro. Multimodal mechanism of action of the GSK-3 inhibitor 9-ING-41 (elraglusib) includes an immunomodulatory component: preliminary results from the 1801 phase 1/2 trial [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 2 (Clinical Trials and Late-Breaking Research); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(8_Suppl):Abstract nr CT222.

Abstract Purpose: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a predominantly fatal common malignancy with inadequate treatment options. Glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK-3β) is an emerging target in human malignancies including PDAC. Experimental Design: Pancreatic cancer cell lines and patient-derived xenografts were treated with a novel GSK-3 inhibitor 9-ING-41 alone or in combination with chemotherapy. Activation of the DNA damage response pathway and S-phase arrest induced by gemcitabine were assessed in pancreatic tumor cells with pharmacologic inhibition or siRNA depletion of GSK-3 kinases by immunoblotting, flow cytometry, and immunofluorescence. Results: 9-ING-41 treatment significantly increased pancreatic tumor cell killing when combined with chemotherapy. Inhibition of GSK-3 by 9-ING-41 prevented gemcitabine-induced S-phase arrest suggesting an impact on the ATR-mediated DNA damage response. Both 9-ING-41 and siRNA depletion of GSK-3 kinases impaired the activation of ATR leading to the phosphorylation and activation of Chk1. Mechanistically, depletion or knockdown of GSK-3 kinases resulted in the degradation of the ATR-interacting protein TopBP1, thus limiting the activation of ATR in response to single-strand DNA damage. Conclusions: These data identify a previously unknown role for GSK-3 kinases in the regulation of the TopBP1/ATR/Chk1 DNA damage response pathway. The data also support the inclusion of patients with PDAC in clinical studies of 9-ING-41 alone and in combination with gemcitabine.

Abstract Background: We have previously identified Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3 beta (GSK-3β) nuclear accumulation as a hallmark of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and demonstrated the antitumor effects of GSK-3β tool compound inhibitors in vivo (Ougolkov, Clin Cancer Res 2006). 9-ING-41 (Actuate Therapeutics Inc), a first-in-class, small-molecule potent selective GSK-3β inhibitor, has significant preclinical antitumor activity in PDAC. 9-ING-41 is synergistic with gemcitabine (GEM) in significantly reducing PDAC cell proliferation via impairment of ATR/Chk1 DNA damage response (Ding, Clin Cancer Res 2019). These data provided the rationale for inclusion of patients with PDAC in the 1801 phase 1/2 study evaluating 9-ING-41 alone and in combination with chemotherapy, including GEM and GEM plus nab-paclitaxel. Methods: Parts 1 and 2 of the 1801 phase 1/2 study evaluate the safety and tolerability of 9-ING-41 in patients with refractory malignancies. Part 1 establishes the recommended phase 2 study dose (RP2D) for 9-ING-41 monotherapy, while Part 2 assesses 9-ING-41 in combination with chemotherapies. For Part 1, patients received twice-weekly IV infusions of 9-ING-41 (21-day cycle). Based on prior treatment, Part 2 for those with PDAC consists of 9-ING-41 plus GEM (1000 to 1250 mg/m2 days 1 and 8; 21-day cycle) or 9-ING-41 plus GEM and nab-paclitaxel (125 mg/m2). Part 3 (Simon 2-stage phase 2 at the RP2D) will assess clinical benefit in patients with refractory PDAC treated with 9-ING-41-based combinations at the RP2D established in Part 2. Response is defined by response evaluation criteria in solid tumors (RECIST) criteria in evaluable lesions. The study is opening in 25 sites globally and will accrue approximately 300 patients. Results: To date, the study has accrued 34 patients with advanced solid tumors (n=33) or hematologic malignancies (n=1). Four dose levels (1, 2, 3.3, and 5 mg/kg) have been completed without dose-limiting toxicities (DLT). Part 2 of the study evaluating combination of 9-ING-41 with chemotherapy agents has been activated. Six patients with advanced PDAC have enrolled. One patient has completed 5 cycles of treatment with 9-ING-41 (1mg/kg) with stable disease (SD) as the best response. Another patient with SD as the best response has completed 6 cycles and now is joining the arm combining 9-ING-41 with GEM after disease progression. Four additional patients are awaiting first response assessment with enrollment ongoing. 9-ING-41-attributable AE to date are Grade 1 transient visual changes (color perception). Conclusions: 9-ING-41 is well tolerated. Preclinical data support the inclusion of patients with advanced PDAC on clinical studies of 9-ING-41. Citation Format: Benedito A. Carneiro, Malika Dhawan, Brittany Borden, Ludimila Cavalcante, Howard Safran, Andrey Ugolkov, Andrew P. Mazar, Daniel D. Billadeau, Francis J. Giles, Pamela Munster. GSK-3β blockade with 9-ING-41 in pancreas cancer: The 1801 phase 1/2 study [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Pancreatic Cancer: Advances in Science and Clinical Care; 2019 Sept 6-9; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(24 Suppl):Abstract nr B09.

Abstract Glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β), a serine/threonine protein kinase, is a complex regulator of numerous cellular functions. GSK-3β is a unique kinase which is constitutively active in resting and nonstimulated cells. GSK-3β has been implicated in a wide range of diseases including neurodegeneration, inflammation and fibrosis, noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, and cancer. It is a regulator of NF-κB–mediated survival of cancer cells, which provided a rationale for the development of GSK-3 inhibitors targeting malignant tumors. Recent studies, many of them reported over the past decade, have identified GSK-3β as a potential therapeutic target in more than 15 different types of cancer. Whereas only active GSK-3β is expressed in cancer cell nucleus, aberrant nuclear accumulation of GSK-3β has been identified as a hallmark of cancer cells in malignant tumors of different origin. This review focuses on the preclinical and clinical development of GSK-3 inhibitors and the potential therapeutic impact of targeting GSK-3β in human cancer. Clin Cancer Res; 23(8); 1891–7. ©2017 AACR.

AbstractThe histone deacetylases (HDACs) occur in 11 different isoforms, and these enzymes regulate the activity of a large number of proteins involved in cancer initiation and progression. The discovery of isoform‐selective HDAC inhibitors (HDACIs) is desirable, as it is likely that such compounds would avoid some of the undesirable side effects found with the first‐generation inhibitors. A series of HDACIs previously reported by us were found to display some selectivity for HDAC6 and to induce cell‐cycle arrest and apoptosis in pancreatic cancer cells. In the present work, we show that structural modification of these isoxazole‐based inhibitors leads to high potency and selectivity for HDAC6 over HDAC1–3 and HDAC10, while unexpectedly abolishing their ability to block cell growth. Three inhibitors with lower HDAC6 selectivity inhibit the growth of cell lines BxPC3 and L3.6pl, and they only induce apoptosis in L3.6pl cells. We conclude that HDAC6 inhibition alone is insufficient for disruption of cell growth, and that some degree of class 1 HDAC inhibition is required. Moreover, the highly selective HDAC6Is reported herein that are weakly cytotoxic may find use in cancer immune system reactivation.

Abstract This report describes results from our analysis of the activity and biodistribution of a novel pan-ERBB inhibitor, NT113, when used in treating mice with intracranial glioblastoma (GBM) xenografts. Approaches used in this investigation include: bioluminescence imaging (BLI) for monitoring intracranial tumor growth and response to therapy; determination of survival benefit from treatment; analysis of tumor IHC reactivity for indication of treatment effect on proliferation and apoptotic response; Western blot analysis for determination of effects of treatment on ERBB and ERBB signaling mediator activation; and high-performance liquid chromatography for determination of NT113 concentration in tissue extracts from animals receiving oral administration of inhibitor. Our results show that NT113 is active against GBM xenografts in which wild-type EGFR or EGFRvIII is highly expressed. In experiments including lapatinib and/or erlotinib, NT113 treatment was associated with the most substantial improvement in survival, as well as the most substantial tumor growth inhibition, as indicated by BLI and IHC results. Western blot analysis results indicated that NT113 has inhibitory activity, both in vivo and in vitro, on ERBB family member phosphorylation, as well as on the phosphorylation of downstream signaling mediator Akt. Results from the analysis of animal tissues revealed significantly higher NT113 normal brain-to-plasma and intracranial tumor-to-plasma ratios for NT113, relative to erlotinib, indicating superior NT113 partitioning to intracranial tissue compartments. These data provide a strong rationale for the clinical investigation of NT113, a novel ERBB inhibitor, in treating patients with GBM. Mol Cancer Ther; 13(12); 2919–29. ©2014 AACR.