BioCentury
ARTICLE | Distillery Therapeutics

Therapeutics: BMI1 polycomb ring finger oncogene (BMI1); CCAAT enhancer binding protein α (CEBPA)

September 1, 2016 7:00 AM UTC

Patient sample, cell culture and mouse studies suggest inhibiting BMI1 could help treat NSCLC patients who have low tumor levels of CEBPA. In NSCLC patients with low tumor levels of CEBPA, high tumor levels of BMI1 correlated with poor survival. In a mouse lung cancer cell line with low CEBPA expression, a BMI1 inhibitor tool compound increased cell cycle arrest compared with vehicle. In a xenograft mouse model of low CEBPA-expressing NSCLC, shRNA targeting BMI1 in the tumors or the BMI1 inhibitor decreased tumor growth compared with scrambled shRNA or vehicle. Next steps include investigating microRNAs to identify lung cancer patients who could benefit from BMI1 inhibitors...