Comprehensive pharmacogenomic profiling of human papillomavirus-positive and -negative squamous cell carcinoma identifies sensitivity to aurora kinase inhibition in KMT2D mutants

To address the unmet need for effective biomarker-driven targeted therapy for human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and cervical cancer, we conducted a high-throughput drug screen using 1122 compounds in 13 HPV-positive and 11 matched HPV-negative cell lines. The most effective drug classes were inhibitors of polo-like kinase, proteasomes, histone deacetylase, and Aurora kinases. Treatment with a pan-Aurora inhibitor, danusertib, led to G2M arrest and apoptosis in vitro.

Source: Cancer Letters - May 25, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Nene N. Kalu, Tuhina Mazumdar, Shaohua Peng, Pan Tong, Li Shen, Jing Wang, Upasana Banerjee, Jeffrey N. Myers, Curtis R. Pickering, David Brunell, Clifford C. Stephan, Faye M. Johnson Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research