Article
Author: Villanueva, Alberto ; Rodrigues, Telmo ; Wang, Xinan ; Mira, Alessia ; Alvarez-Villanueva, Daniel ; Awad, Mark M ; Ricciuti, Biagio ; Martínez-Iniesta, María ; Caizzi, Livia ; Santamaría, David ; Peirone, Serena ; Nadal, Ernest ; Patrucco, Enrico ; Bourdon, Aurelien ; Vietti Michelina, Sandra ; García-Macías, Carmen ; Cereda, Matteo ; Awad, Mark M. ; San José, Sonia ; Nokin, Marie-Julie ; Ambrogio, Chiara ; Vidal, August ; Cousin, Sophie ; Soubeyran, Isabelle ; Italiano, Antoine
Selective KRASG12C inhibitors have been developed to covalently lock the oncogene in the inactive GDP-bound state. Two of these molecules, sotorasib and adagrasib, are approved for the treatment of adult patients with KRASG12C-mutated previously treated advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Drug treatment imposes selective pressures leading to the outgrowth of drug-resistant variants. Mass sequencing from patients' biopsies identified a number of acquired KRAS mutations -both in cis and in trans- in resistant tumors. We demonstrate here that disease progression in vivo can also occur due to adaptive mechanisms and increased KRAS-GTP loading. Using the preclinical tool tri-complex KRASG12C-selective covalent inhibitor, RMC-4998 (also known as RM-029), that targets the active GTP-bound (ON) state of the oncogene, we provide a proof-of-concept that the clinical stage KRASG12C(ON) inhibitor RMC-6291 alone or in combination with KRASG12C(OFF) drugs can be an alternative potential therapeutic strategy to circumvent resistance due to increased KRAS-GTP loading.