Tumor development by transgenic expression of a constitutively active insulin-like growth factor I receptor

The insulin-like growth factor I receptor (IGF-IR) is a transmembrane tyrosine kinase that is essential to growth and development and also thought to provide a survival signal for the maintenance of the transformed phenotype. There has been increasing interest in further understanding the role of IGF-I signaling in cancer and in developing receptor antagonists for therapeutic application. We describe herein a novel animal model that involves transgenic expression of a fusion receptor that is constitutively activated by homodimerization. Transgenic mice that expressed the activated receptor showed aberrant development of the mammary glands and developed salivary and mammary adenocarcinomas as early as 8 weeks of age. Xenograft tumors and a cell line were derived from the transgenic animals and are sensitive to inhibition by a novel small-molecule inhibitor of the IGF-IR kinase. This new model should provide new opportunities for further understanding how aberrant IGF-IR signaling leads to tumorigenesis and for optimizing novel antagonists of the receptor kinase.