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Endocrine Abstracts (2022) 81 P174 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.81.P174

1University of Milan, Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, Milan, Italy; 2Neurosurgery Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, University of Milan, Milan, Italy; 3Endocrine Unit, IRCCS Humanitas Clinical Institute, Humanitas University, Rozzano, Rozzano, Italy; 4Endocrinology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, University of Milan, Milan, Italy


The mTOR inhibitor everolimus has been shown to display antimitotic effects on diverse neoplasms, including pituitary neuroendocrine tumors (PitNETs); however, its effect is reduced by an escape mechanism that increases AKT phosphorylation (P-AKT) leading to survival pathway activation. Dopamine receptor type 2 (DRD2) reduces p-AKT in some non-functioning PitNETs (NF-PitNETs) and in lactotrophs MMQ cells, through a α-arrestin 2-dependent mechanism. This study aims to analyze the efficacy of everolimus combined with DRD2 agonist cabergoline in reducing proliferation in primary cultured NF-PitNETs and MMQ cells, to analyze AKT phosphorylation and α-arrestin 2 activity. We found that 9 out of 14 NF-PitNETs were resistant to everolimus 1 nM, but the combined treatment with cabergoline inhibited cell proliferation in 7 out of 9 tumors (-31.4 ± 9.9%, P< 0.001 vs basal), accordingly increased p27 and reduced cyclin D3 expression. In everolimus unresponsive NF-PitNETs group, 3 h everolimus treatment determined a significant increase of p-AKT/total-AKT ratio (2.1-fold, P< 0.01, vs basal), and this effect was significantly reverted by cabergoline cotreatment. To investigate the molecular mechanism involved, we used MMQ cells as a model of everolimus escape mechanism. Indeed, 1 nM everolimus did not affect MMQ cells proliferation and increased p-AKT/total-AKT ratio (+1.53 ± 0.24-fold, P<0.001 vs basal), whereas cabergoline significantly reduced cell proliferation (-22.8 ± 6.8%, P<0.001 vs basal) and AKT activity. The combined treatment of everolimus and cabergoline induced a significant reduction of both cell proliferation (-34.8 ± 18%, P<0.001 vs basal and P<0.05 vs cabergoline alone) and p-AKT/total-AKT ratio (-34.5 ± 14%, P<0.001 vs basal and P<0.05 vs cabergoline alone). Moreover, to test a possible involvement of α-arrestin 2, silencing experiments were performed in MMQ cells. Our data showed that the lack of α-arrestin 2 prevented everolimus and cabergoline co-treatment inhibitory effects on both AKT activation and cells proliferation. These results unveiled that cabergoline overcomes the everolimus escape mechanism in primary NF-PitNETs cultured and MMQ cells inhibiting AKT phosphorylation, paving the way for a potential role of β-arrestin 2 as a biomarker predicting PitNETs responsiveness to combined therapy with dopamine agonists.

Volume 81

European Congress of Endocrinology 2022

Milan, Italy
21 May 2022 - 24 May 2022

European Society of Endocrinology 

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