Abstract PR13: Polymerase-mediated ultramutagenesis: A new approach for modeling the high mutational load of human cancer

• Published in: Cancer research (Chicago, Ill.) Ill.), 2020-06, Vol.80 (11_Supplement), p.PR13-PR13
• Main Authors: Li, Hao-Dong, Lu, Changzheng, Zhang, He, Cuevas, Ileana C., Sahoo, Subhransu S., Fu, Yang-Xin, Castrillon, Diego H.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0008-5472; 1538-7445
• DOI: 10.1158/1538-7445.CAMODELS2020-PR13

Cancer is characterized by increased mutation rate, and recent work has led to a deeper understanding of mutator phenotypes and underlying molecular mechanisms. Differences in the mutational landscape of individual cancers underlie key aspects of clinical behavior. For example, overall base substitution rate is the best predictor of immune therapy response. Most genetically engineered mouse models of cancer (GEMMs) reiterate a few driver events but fail to recapitulate the high mutational loads that are the ultimate cause of most human cancer, making GEMMs inadequate for many aspects of tumor behavior, such as immune responses. The highest base substitution rates in cancers (≥100/Mb) result from specific heterozygous single amino acid substitutions (usually P286R) in the proofreading domain of DNA polymerase epsilon (POLE), rendering POLE highly error prone. POLE mutations are most common in endometrial cancer but occur with lower incidence in a wide range of cancers. We hypothesized that GEMMs could be generated by recapitulating PoleP286R via conditional knockin. Previously, we showed that constitutive expression of PoleP286R throughout the body triggered malignancies of diverse lineages. Mice harboring LSL-PoleP286R and the endometrial BAC-Sprr2f-Cre developed endometrial cancers starting at 1 year. Endometrial cancers exhibited histologic features previously reported in human POLE tumors, and metastasized in all mice (p