GSE184335
Selective inhibition of CDK9 in triple negative breast cancer
Targeted treatment for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) remains an elusive clinical challenge. Cyclin-dependent kinase 9 (CDK9) is a transcriptional regulator shown to promote growth of multiple cancers, including TNBC, and represents a potential new therapeutic target. CDK9 increases RNA Polymerase II (Pol II) activity, which facilitates sustained expression of short-lived oncogenic and anti-apoptotic proteins. However, pre-clinical evaluation of CDK9 as a therapeutic target has been hampered by the poor selectivity of existing CDK9 inhibitors (CDK9i). Here, we report a novel CDK9i; D11-8, which exhibits high potency against CDK9 (Ki = 8 nM) and displays remarkable selectivity over other CDKs and human kinases. D11-8 inhibited TNBC cell line proliferation,, induced G2/M cell cycle arrest, and increased apoptosis. Mechanistically, D11-8 inhibited CDK9; reducing  Pol II phosphorylation, down-regulating expression of proto-oncogene MYC and anti-apoptotic marker MCL1, and dramatically inducing Pol II promoter-proximal pausing at MYC, G2/M checkpoint, and E2F2 target genes. D11-8 was further validated for TNBC in vivo, and inhibited TNBC cell line tumour growth without toxicity. To further elucidate the cancer cell specificity of D11-8, normal breast tissue was collected from women undergoing reduction mammoplasty surgery and treated with D11-8 ex vivo as patient-derived explants. High doses of D11-8 (2.7 µM) had no effect on the proliferative capacity of normal breast epithelial cells (Ki67 positivity), and tissues appeared histologically normal. Collectively, these data demonstrate that D11-8 effectively inhibits CDK9 in TNBC cell lines, resulting in growth inhibition without short-term toxicity. Overall design: RNA Polymerase II (Pol II) ChIP-seq in MDA-MB-453 cells after 4 h treatment with either a vehicle or CDK9 inhibitor D11-8