Person: Barry, William T.
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Publication Response and resistance to BET bromodomain inhibitors in triple negative breast cancer
(2015) Shu, Shaokun; Lin, Charles Y.; He, Housheng Hansen; Witwicki, Robert; Tabassum, Doris P.; Roberts, Justin M.; Janiszewska, Michalina; Huh, Sung Jin; Liang, Yi; Ryan, Jeremy; Doherty, Ernest; Mohammed, Hisham; Guo, Hao; Stover, Daniel G.; Ekram, Muhammad B.; Brown, Jonathan; D'Santos, Clive; Krop, Ian; Dillon, Deborah; McKeown, Michael; Ott, Christopher; Qi, Jun; Ni, Min; Rao, Prakash K.; Duarte, Melissa; Wu, Shwu-Yuan; Chiang, Cheng-Ming; Anders, Lars; Young, Richard A.; Winer, Eric; Letai, Antony; Barry, William T.; Carroll, Jason S.; Long, Henry; Brown, Myles; Liu, X. Shirley; Meyer, Clifford; Bradner, James E; Polyak, KorneliaTriple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a heterogeneous and clinically aggressive disease for which there is no targeted therapy1-3. BET bromodomain inhibitors, which have shown efficacy in several models of cancer4-6, have not been evaluated in TNBC. These inhibitors displace BET bromodomain proteins such as BRD4 from chromatin by competing with their acetyllysine recognition modules, leading to inhibition of oncogenic transcriptional programs7-9. Here we report the preferential sensitivity of TNBCs to BET bromodomain inhibition in vitro and in vivo, establishing a rationale for clinical investigation and further motivation to understand mechanisms of resistance. In paired cell lines selected for acquired resistance to BET inhibition from previously sensitive TNBCs, we failed to identify gatekeeper mutations, new driver events or drug pump activation. BET-resistant TNBC cells remain dependent on wild-type BRD4, which supports transcription and cell proliferation in a bromodomain-independent manner. Proteomic studies of resistant TNBC identify strong association with MED1 and hyper-phosphorylation of BRD4 attributable to decreased activity of PP2A, identified here as a principal BRD4 serine phosphatase. Together, these studies provide a rationale for BET inhibition in TNBC and present mechanism-based combination strategies to anticipate clinical drug resistance.
Publication MECP2 Is a Frequently Amplified Oncogene with a Novel Epigenetic Mechanism That Mimics the Role of Activated RAS in Malignancy
(American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), 2015) Neupane, Manish; Clark, Allison; Landini, S.; Birkbak, N; Eklund, A. C.; Lim, E.; Culhane, Aedin; Barry, William T.; Schumacher, Sandra; Beroukhim, Rameen; Szallasi, Zoltan; Vidal, Marc; Hill, David; Silver, Daniel P.An unbiased genome-scale screen for unmutated genes that drive cancer growth when overexpressed identified MECP2 as a novel oncogene. MECP2 resides in a region of the Xchromosome that is significantly amplified across 18% of cancers, and many cancer cell lines have amplified, overexpressed MECP2 and are dependent on MECP2 expression for growth. MECP2 copy number gain and RAS family member alterations are mutually exclusive in several cancer types. The MECP2 splicing isoforms activate the major growth factor pathways targeted by activated RAS, the MAPK and PI3K pathways. MECP2 rescued the growth of a KRASG12Caddicted cell line after KRAS down-regulation, and activated KRAS rescues the growth of an MECP2-addicted cell line after MECP2 downregulation. MECP2 binding to the epigenetic modification 5-hydroxymethylcytosine is required for efficient transformation. These observations suggest that MECP2 is a commonly amplified oncogene with an unusual epigenetic mode of action.