Date
2024
Abstract
TP53-mutant blood cancers remain a clinical challenge. BH3-mimetic drugs inhibit BCL-2 pro-survival proteins, inducing cancer cell apoptosis. Despite acting downstream of p53, functional p53 is required for maximal cancer cell killing by BH3-mimetics through an unknown mechanism. Here, we report p53 is activated following BH3-mimetic induced mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization, leading to BH3-only protein induction and thereby potentiating the pro-apoptotic signal. TP53-deficient lymphomas lack this feedforward loop, providing opportunities for survival and disease relapse after BH3-mimetic treatment. The therapeutic barrier imposed by defects in TP53 can be overcome by direct activation of the cGAS/STING pathway, which promotes apoptosis of blood cancer cells through p53-independent BH3-only protein upregulation. Combining clinically relevant STING agonists with BH3-mimetic drugs efficiently kills TRP53/TP53-mutant mouse B lymphoma, human NK/T lymphoma, and acute myeloid leukemia cells. This represents a promising therapy regime that can be fast-tracked to tackle TP53-mutant blood cancers in the clinic.
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Description
Publisher
Elsevier
Citation
Cancer Cell, 2024, 42 (5), pp. 850-868.e9
Collections
School of Medicine
Health Research Institute (HRI)
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Ross_2024_Putting.pdf
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Keywords
BH3-mimetic drugs, STING, blood cancer, lymphoma, acute myeloid leukemia, apoptosis, Health sciences
ULRR Identifiers
https://doi.org/10.34961/researchrepository-ul.26842783
 https://hdl.handle.net/10344/13757
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Funding Information
Sustainable Development Goals
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