Perifosine (NSC 639966; Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, New York, NY) is a synthetic novel alkylphospholipid, a new class of anti-tumor agents which potently inhibits Akt (PKB) activity. Our previous studies have shown that Perifosine induces significant cytotoxicity in MM cells triggered by c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) activation followed by caspase-8, caspase-9, and PARP cleavage even in the presence of cytokines (ie, IL-6 and IGF-1) or bone marrow stromal cell (BMSCs). Importantly, MEK inhibitor and bortezomib enhance Perifosine-induced cytotoxicity. It has also shown significant anti-tumor activity in a human MM cell xenograft mouse model (

Hideshima et al.
Blood
2006
,
107
:
4053
–4062
). In this study, we further delineated molecular mechanisms whereby Perifosine triggers cytotoxicity as a single agent and in combination with bortezomib in MM cells. In most MM cell lines, the IC50 for Perifosine-induced cytotoxicity is 5–10 μM range assessed by MTT assay at 24h; however, apoptosis assessed by APO2.7 staining, varied in each cell line. Moreover, neither the degree of JNK phosphorylation nor caspase-8/9/PARP cleavage correlated with Perifosine-induced cytotoxicity. Therefore we further examined expression level of anti-apoptotic proteins in MM cell lines and found that survivin, which has a crucial role in regulation of caspase-3 activity, was markedly downregulated by Perifosine treatment in a time- and dose-dependent fashion, without affecting expression of other anti-apoptotic proteins (ie, cIAP, XIAP, Bcl-2, Bcl-xL). Since survivin is a known downstream protein of β-catenin/TCF-4 cascade, we next hypothesized that Perifosine may inhibit β-catenin activity. As expected, Perifosine significantly downregulated both phosphorylation and protein expression of β-catenin, associated with downregulation of survivin and enhanced caspase-3 cleavage. Real-time PCR confirmed that gene expression of survivin was suppressed 35% and 55% after 3h and 6h Perifosine treatment, respectively. Since β-catenin is a substrate of proteasomes, we further examined whether bortezomib could augment survivin expression by blocking its degradation. Importantly, bortezomib significantly upregulated β-catenin and survivin, which was blocked in the presence of Perifosine. These results suggest that inhibition of bortezomib-induced survivin expression, at least in part, accounts for enhanced bortezomib-induced cytotoxicity by Perifosine. Based upon these preclinical studies, a rational combination trial of bortezomib with Perifosine to treat relapsed refractory MM is currently ongoing.

Topics:
cytotoxicity, down-regulation, multiple myeloma, perifosine, proto-oncogene proteins c-akt, survivin, bortezomib, caspase-3, caspase-8, poly(adp-ribose) polymerases

Disclosures: Keryx Biopharmaceuticals.

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2006, The American Society of Hematology
2006
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