Poly ADP-ribose polymerase inhibitors (PARPi) have transformed ovarian cancer (OC) treatment, primarily for tumours deficient in homologous recombination repair. Combining VEGF-signalling inhibitors with PARPi has enhanced clinical benefit in OC. To study drivers of efficacy when combining PARP inhibition and VEGF-signalling, a cohort of patient-derived ovarian cancer xenografts (OC-PDXs), representative of the molecular characteristics and drug sensitivity of patient tumours, were treated with the PARPi olaparib and the VEGFR inhibitor cediranib at clinically relevant doses. The combination showed broad anti-tumour activity, reducing growth of all OC-PDXs, regardless of the homologous recombination repair (HRR) mutational status, with greater additive combination benefit in tumours poorly sensitive to platinum and olaparib. In orthotopic models, the combined treatment reduced tumour dissemination in the peritoneal cavity and prolonged survival. Enhanced combination benefit was independent of tumour cell expression of receptor tyrosine kinases targeted by cediranib, and not associated with change in expression of genes associated with DNA repair machinery. However, the combination of cediranib with olaparib was effective in reducing tumour vasculature in all the OC-PDXs. Collectively our data suggest that olaparib and cediranib act through complementary mechanisms affecting tumour cells and tumour microenvironment, respectively. This detailed analysis of the combined effect of VEGF-signalling and PARP inhibitors in OC-PDXs suggest that despite broad activity, there is no dominant common mechanistic inter-dependency driving therapeutic benefit.

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A large number of novel cellular proto-oncogenes have been identified and cloned by analysis of common integration sites in retrovirally induced malignancies. In the multistage erythroleukemias induced by the various strains of Friend leukemia virus, the analysis of proviral-integration events has led to the identification of two genes, Fli-1 and Spi-1, both novel members of the ets oncogene family of transcription factors. In this report, we describe the identification of another integration site, designated Fli-2 (Friend leukemia virus integration-2), in an erythroleukemia cell line induced by Friend murine leukemia virus (F-MuLV). Rearrangements at the Fli-2 locus were found in two erythroleukemia cell lines independently induced by F-MuLV and one leukemic cell line derived from the spleen of a mouse infected with the polycythemia strain of Friend leukemia virus. The deduced amino acid sequence of a cDNA corresponding to a transcript originating from genomic DNA adjacent to Fli-2 is identical to that of the human heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein A1 gene, a member of the gene family of RNA-binding proteins involved in RNA splicing. In one erythroleukemia cell line, A1 expression was undetectable as a result of F-MuLV integration in one allele and loss of the other allele. These results suggest that perturbations in RNA splicing mechanisms may contribute to malignant transformation and provide direct evidence that the A1 protein is not required for cell growth.

Human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1)-Tat, the transactivating gene product of HIV-1, has been shown to interact with different cell types, inducing gene expression, altering their growth and migratory behavior. In this study we examined whether Tat might affect functions of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)-related non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), relevant to the in vivo dissemination. Our results show that Tat significantly augmented the motility of the two AIDS-related Burkitt’s lymphoma cell lines (AS283 and PA682PB) and AIDS-primary effusion lymphoma cell line (HBL-6-AIDS-PEL). Mutations in RGD or basic domain of Tat (KGE-MBP and LxI-MBP, respectively) sharply reduced migration compared with wild type, suggesting that both domains are required for migration. In contrast, a Tat protein mutation outside the active domains (NH2-TAT-GST) did not reduce lymphoma cell migration. The treatment of lymphoma cells with Tat did not influence their adhesion to matrix proteins or to human vascular endothelial cells, but endothelial cells treated with Tat became more adhesive to lymphoma cells. Flow cytometric analysis showed that treatment of endothelial cells with Tat induced the cell surface expression of the adhesion molecules vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) and E-selectin and increased the expression of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1). Only antibodies against VCAM-1 on endothelial cells or against the VLA-4 integrin expressed on AS283 cells inhibited the increment of adhesion, indicating the relevance of this pathway in the adhesion of lymphoma cells to vascular endothelium. In our work, we show for the first time that Tat can enhance the migration of lymphoma cells and their adhesion to endothelial cells, two processes that may contribute to the malignant behavior of NHL in patients with AIDS.