III-tubulin suppression enhances the activity of Amuvatinib to inhibit cell proliferation in c-Met positive non-small cell lung cancer cells

Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma (NSCLC) remains a leading cause of cancer death. Resistance to therapy is a significant problem, highlighting the need to find new ways of sensitising tumour cells to therapeutic agents. beta III-tubulin is associated with aggressive tumours and chemotherapy resistance in a range of cancers including NSCLC. beta III-tubulin expression has been shown to impact kinase signalling in NSCLC cells. Here, we sought to exploit this interaction by identifying co-activity between beta III-tubulin suppression and small-molecule kinase inhibitors. To achieve this, a forced-genetics approach combined with a high-throughput drug screen was used. We show that activity of the multi-kinase inhibitor Amuvatinib (MP-470) is enhanced by beta III-tubulin suppression in independent NSCLC cell lines. We also show that this compound significantly inhibits cell proliferation among beta III-tubulin knockdown cells expressing the receptor tyrosine kinase c-Met. Together, our results highlight that beta III-tubulin suppression combined with targeting specific receptor tyrosine kinases may represent a novel therapeutic approach for otherwise difficult-to-treat lung carcinomas.