Abstract 1174: CT179 degrades the olig2 transcription factor in glioblastoma stem-like cells and prolongs survival

Olig2 is a bHLH transcription factor that has been shown to be a key driver of glioblastoma (GBM) tumorigenesis. Olig2 is expressed in human tumor-derived glioma stem-like cells. A growing body of evidence suggests that glioma stem-like cells (GSCs) are more representative of their parent tumors when cultured under defined serum-free conditions with the mitogens epidermal growth factor (EGF) and fibroblast growth factor (FGF). Furthermore, recent research has indicated that human Proneural GSCs grown in vitro in PDGF are more tumorigenic in vivo. We have designed and synthesized a potent inhibitor of Olig2 that possesses all the necessary properties for clinical development as an important new GBM therapeutic. CT179 dose dependently causes the degradation of Olig2 in multiple GBM cell lines and this correlates to G2/M arrest and increased apoptosis. CT179 also induces the loss of expression of EGFR and PDGFR in human GSCs. CT179 achieves high concentrations in the CNS with a long duration of pharmacologic action. Furthermore, CT179 significantly extends survival of mice implanted orthotopically with patient-derived human tumor GSCs. Immunohistochemistry demonstrates a marked reduction of Olig2 positive cells in the tumor bearing animals. Together, these results indicate that CT179 has significant promise as a new therapeutic for the treatment of human GBM. Citation Format: Gordon R. Alton, Graham Beaton, Susan Knowles, Gregory Stein, Santosh Kesari. CT179 degrades the olig2 transcription factor in glioblastoma stem-like cells and prolongs survival [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 1174. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-1174