Mammalian Target of Rapamycin Inhibition Enhances Delivery and Activity of Antisense Oligonucleotides in Uveal Melanoma Cells

Uveal melanoma (UM) is the most common primary intraocular malignancy in adults. Owing to a lack of effective treatments, patients with metastatic disease have a median survival time of 6-12 months. We recently demonstrated that the Survival Associated Mitochondrial Melanoma Specific Oncogenic Non-coding RNA is essential for UM cell survival and that antisense oligonucleotide (ASO)-mediated silencing of impaired cell viability and tumor growth and . By screening a library of 2911 clinical stage compounds, we identified the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitor GDC-0349 to synergize with inhibition in UM. Mechanistic studies revealed that mTOR inhibition enhanced uptake and reduced lysosomal accumulation of lipid complexed ASOs, improving knockdown and further decreasing UM cell viability. We found mTOR inhibition to also enhance target knockdown in other cancer cell lines as well as normal cells when combined with lipid nanoparticle complexed or encapsulated ASOs or small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). Our results are relevant to nucleic acid treatment in general and highlight the potential of mTOR inhibition to enhance ASO and siRNA-mediated target knockdown.