Poster Presentation 32nd Lorne Cancer 2020

Anti-tropomyosin drugs prevent the rescue of vincristine-induced mitotic spindle defects (#166)

Peter Gunning 1 , Yao Wang 1 , Jeff Stear 1 , Ashleigh Swain 1 , Xing Xu 1 , Nicole Bryce 1 , Tim Cripe 2 , Justine Stehn 1 , Edna Hardeman 1
  1. University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  2. Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA

Drugs targeting a major component of the actin filaments of cancer cells, tropomyosin Tpm3.1, synergise with anti-microtubule drugs in neuroblastoma and lung cancer models both in vitro and in vivo and a wide range of other cancer types in vitro. We have determined the mechanism of synergy in HeLa cells to gain insight into the potential interaction of actin filaments and microtubules in the survival and proliferation of cancer cells. HeLa cells exhibit a strong synergistic response to the combined treatment of vincristine (VCR) and anti-Tpm3.1 compounds, marked by an enhanced reduction in cell viability, apoptosis induction and mitotic cell cycle arrest. Tpm3.1 localizes to the cell cortex during mitosis, potentially associating with the microtubule network, particularly the dynein/dynactin complexes responsible for mediating cortical pulling forces during spindle assembly. VCR alone causes supernumerary NuMA organized acentrosomal microtubule organizing centers upon nuclear envelope breakdown, which can be resolved via a clustering mechanism to achieve bipolar cell division. The addition of anti-Tpm3.1 compounds inhibits NuMA-associated clustering in VCR-treated cells, leading to irreparable defects during spindle assembly and thus a large increased number of cells with multi-polar spindles undergoing mitotic delay and catastrophe. We conclude that actin/Tpm3.1 filaments contribute to the formation of the bipolar spindle and play a critical role in the clustering of acentrosomal microtubule asters.