Expression profiling by high throughput sequencing
Summary
Third-generation EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs), including osimertinib, an irreversible EGFR-TKI, are important treatments for non-small cell lung cancer with EGFR-TKI sensitizing or EGFR T790M resistance mutations. Whilst patients treated with osimertinib show clinical benefit, disease progression and drug resistance are common. Emergence of de novo acquired resistance from a drug tolerant persister (DTP) cell population is one mechanism proposed to explain progression on osimertinib and other targeted cancer therapies. Here we profiled osimertinib DTPs using RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, and ATAC-seq to characterize the features of these cells and performed drug screens to identify therapeutic opportunities.
Overall design
The NSCLC EGFR mutant cell lines (PC9, NCI-H1975, HCC827, and HCC2935) were treated with 500 nM osimertinib for 21 days (osimertinib DTPs). Cells were either harvested immediately or washed 2x with PBS and then replaced with drug-free media for a further 24 hrs. (short washout), or for a longer time-point (long washout) until exponential cell proliferation resumed (PC9: 7 days; NCI-H1975: 3 days; HCC827: 4 days; HCC2935: 10 days) and then harvested. In parallel, parental cell lines were grown in drug-free media for 21 days then treated with 500 nM osimertinib for 24 hrs. (osimertinib acute) or vehicle DMSO control for 24 hrs. (DMSO control). Experiment was done using biological triplicates. There are 60 total RNA-seq samples.