Author of

• 10557

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  P1.05 - Poster Session 1 - Preclinical Models of Therapeutics/Imaging (ID 156)

  • Event: WCLC 2013
  • Type: Poster Session
  • Track: Biology
  • Presentations: 1
  • Moderators:
  • Coordinates: 10/28/2013, 09:30 - 16:30, Exhibit Hall, Ground Level

  • 10577

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    P1.05-020 - Identifying therapeutic targets for mesothelioma using siRNA (ID 3200)

    09:30 - 09:30  |  Author(s): E. Sollis
    • Abstract

    Background
    Mesothelioma is essentially incurable and new drugs to effectively treat it are urgently needed. Our strategy to achieve this aim was to identify candidate mouse and human genes that may have a role in mesothelioma growth and to inhibit their expression in fully transformed mesothelioma cell lines using siRNA.

    Methods
    The initial selection of candidate genes was made on the basis of their differential expression in transcriptome or CGH analyses when comparing malignant to normal mesothelial cells. This was combined with known functional information relevant to tumorigenesis. We also selected a small number of candidates from other published studies. A second set of candidates was chosen from expressed kinases with the idea that these genes are more likely to represent druggable targets given the broad range of kinase inhibitors that are widely available. Where possible, we identified mouse and human homologues of the 40 candidates and then generated both mouse and human siRNA libraries. We tested the effect of gene knockdown on the growth of mouse and human mesothelioma cell lines in vitro.

    Results
    We found knockdown was efficient and inhibition of a subset of the selected genes slowed cell growth significantly across a range of cell lines in both mouse and human systems. There was not complete concordance between the mouse and human: Incenp, Plk1 and Tpx2 were important pathways for murine cellular proliferation; whereas, AURKA, TPX2 and BIRC5 were relevant for human cellular proliferation only. KIF11 was identified in both studies.

    Conclusion
    These genes all have a function in chromosome positioning, centrosome separation and spindle assembly during cell mitosis. Our data show that targeting these gene products in mesothelioma cell line causes growth inhibition both in vitro and in vivo. These studies could provide new leads for drug development.