Overcoming Resistance to AC0010, a Third Generation of EGFR Inhibitor, by Targeting c-MET and BCL-2

AC0010 is a pyrrolopyrimidine-based irreversible inhibitor of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), structurally distinct from previously reported pyrimidine-based irreversible EGFR inhibitors such as osimertinib and rociletinib. AC0010 selectively inhibits EGFR T790M mutation in both preclinical and clinical studies. However, AC0010 treatment eventually triggers drug resistance with unknown mechanism. To this end, we established two H1975 NSCLC-derived lines resistant to AC0010 after a series of drug exposure and selection in either nude-mice xenograft tumor (H1975-P) or cell culture (H1975-AVR) settings. Both lines obtained 100-fold resistance to AC0010 as compared to the parental lines. To elucidate underlying mechanism, we performed unbiased RNAseq-based profiling analysis and found that H1975-P cells had c-MET overexpression, whereas H1975-AVR cells had BCL-2 overexpression. AC0010 resistance was partially abrogated by targeting c-MET or BCL-2 using either pharmacological (small molecule inhibitors) and/or genetic (siRNA-based knockdown) approach, respectively. Our study shows that drug resistance to AC0010 can be developed via the different mechanism in a cell context–dependent manner and provides the proof-of-concept evidence for rational drug combinations to overcome resistance for maximal therapeutic efficacy.