Use of DNA-alkylating pyrrole-imidazole polyamides for anti-cancer drug sensitivity screening in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Background: Activating mutations of the KRAS occurs in >90% of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cases. However, direct pharmacological targeting of the activated KRAS protein has been challenging. We previously reported that KR12, a DNA-alkylating pyrrole-imidazole polyamide designed to recognize the KRAS G12D/V mutation, showed an anti-tumor effect in colorectal cancer. In this study, we evaluated the anti-tumor effect of KR12 in PDAC.

Methods: KR12 was synthesized by an automated peptide synthesizer PSSM-8 and tested for anti-tumor effect in PDAC mouse models.

Result: KR12 inhibited tumor growth in a spontaneous PDAC mouse model, although the anti-tumor activity appeared to be limited in a human PDAC xenograft model. We developed a pyrrole-imidazole polyamide screening process based on the hypothesis that genetic elements otherwise unaffected by KR12 could exert attenuating effects on KRAS-suppression-resistant PDAC. We identified RAD51 as a potential therapeutic target in human PDAC cells. A RAD51 inhibitor showed an inhibitory effect on cell growth and affected the cytotoxic activity of KR12 in PDAC cells.

Conclusion: These data suggested that the simultaneous inhibition of RAD51 and mutant KRAS blockage would be an important therapeutic strategy for PDAC.