Tamoxifen, an important endocrine therapeutic agent, is widely used for the treatment of estrogen receptor positive (ER) breast cancer. However, de novo or acquired resistance prevents patients from benefitting from endocrine approaches and necessitates alternative treatments. In this study, we report that small heat protein beta-8 (HSPB8) may serve as an important molecule in tamoxifen resistance. HSPB8 expression is enhanced in MCF-7 cells resistant to tamoxifen (MCF-7/R) compared to parent cells. Moreover, high expression of HSPB8 associates with poor prognosis in ER breast cancer patients but not in patients without classification. Stimulating ER signaling by heterogeneous expression of ERa or 17β-estradiol promotes HSPB8 expression and reduces the cell population in G phase. In contrast, blockage of ER signaling by tamoxifen down-regulates the expression of HSPB8. In addition, knocking down HSPB8 by specific siRNAs induces significant cell cycle arrest at G phase. AZD8055 was found to be more potent against the proliferation of MCF-7/R cells than that of parent cells, which was associated with down-regulation of HSPB8. We found that the anti-proliferative activity of AZD8055 was positively correlated with the HSPB8 expression level in ER breast cancer cells. Thus, AZD8055 was able to overcome tamoxifen resistance in breast cancer cells, and the expression of HSPB8 may predict the efficacy of AZD8055 in ER breast cancer. This hypothesis deserves further investigation.

mTOR inhibition led to activation of upstream receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) and AKT, which may attenuate the efficacy of mTOR kinase inhibitors. We sought to discover efficient drug combination with mTOR inhibitors by elucidating the survival feedback loops induced by mTOR inhibition in breast cancer. The feedback signaling upon treatment of mTOR inhibitor AZD8055 was determined and the combinatorial activity of AZD8055 and HSP90 inhibitor AUY922 in cell signaling and proliferation were detected. Treatment of breast cancer T47D cells with AZD8055 induced activation of AKT and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), which was accompanied with increase in expression of multiple upstream proteins including EGFR, HER2, HER3 and IRS-1. Different RTKs were revealed to be responsible for the reactivation of AKT by AZD8055 in different breast cancer cell lines. Down-regulation of these proteins differentially enhanced the antiproliferative activity of AZD8055. AZD8055 and AUY922 displayed synergistic effect against a panel of human breast cancer cells irrespective their genotype, which was associated with enhanced cell cycle arrest and inhibition of DNA synthesis. AUY922 destabilized multiple tested tyrosine kinases and abrogated activation of AKT induced by AZD8055. AZD8055 also inhibited up-regulation of HSP70 and HSP27 upon AUY922 treatment. Cotreatment of these two drugs demonstrated synergistic activity against triple negative MDA-MB-468 xenograft without enhanced toxicity. The combination of AZD8055 and AUY922 demonstrated synergistic activity against various types of breast cancer and established a mechanistic rationale for a combination approach using catalytic mTOR kinase inhibitor and HSP90 inhibitor in the treatment of breast cancer.

Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase, a isoform (PI3Ka) plays essential roles in cell metabolism, growth, and proliferation and has been validated as a promising anticancer target. In an effort to search for new PI3Ka-selective inhibitors, DW series compounds were designed and synthesized aiming to reduce the off-target effects of their parent compound PIK-75 [2-methyl-5-nitro-1-benzenesulfonic acid 2-[(6-bromoimidazo[1,2-a]pyridin-3-yl)methylene]-1-methylhydrazide], which was reported to selectively target PI3Ka. A series of compounds named DW series potently inhibited the kinase activity of PI3Ka with little activity against PI3K-related protein kinases and a panel of 15 tyrosine kinases. Similar to PIK-75, DW series compounds were more potent to inhibit PI3Ka among four class I PI3K isoforms, whereas a representative compound DW09849 [(E)-N9-((6-bromoimidazo[1,2-a] pyridin-3-yl)methylene)-N-ethyl-2-methyl-5-nitrobenzohydrazide] displayed distinct binding mode compared with PIK-75. Although DW series compounds inhibited proliferation of rhabdomyosarcoma RH30 cells at elevated 50% inhibitory concentrations (IC 50 ) in comparison with PIK-75, they were more selective than PIK-75 to inhibit PI3K signaling in the cellular context. In particular, DW09849 significantly and persistently blocked PI3K/protein kinase B signaling in RH30 cells, which consequently arrested RH30 cells in the G 1 phase. Moreover, DW09849 selectively suppressed the proliferation and clonogenesis of transformed RK3E/HR cells harboring oncogenic mutation of p110a H1047R, as well as a panel of human breast cancer cells containing mutated PI3Ka, which is consistent with the finding that DW09849 demonstrated preference against H1047R mutated PI3Ka in molecular docking stimulation. These results suggest that DW series compounds, especially DW09849, selectively targeting PI3Ka with less off-target effects than PIK-75, provide new clues for the design and discovery of new specific PI3Ka inhibitors for cancer therapy.