Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Biology in Head and Neck Cancer

2006 ◽  
Vol 24 (17) ◽  
pp. 2666-2672 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shailaja Kalyankrishna ◽  
Jennifer R. Grandis

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is overexpressed in several epithelial malignancies, including head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), which exhibits EGFR overexpression in up to 90% of tumors. EGFR ligands such as transforming growth factor alpha are also overexpressed in HNSCC. EGFR plays a critical role in HNSCC growth, invasion, metastasis and angiogenesis. However, EGFR inhibitors as monotherapy have yielded only modest clinical outcomes. Potential mechanisms for lack of response to EGFR inhibition in HNSCC include constitutive activation of signaling pathways independent of EGFR, as well as genetic aberrations causing dysregulation of the cell cycle. EGFR-directed therapy may be optimized by identifying and selecting those HNSCC patients most likely to benefit from EGFR inhibition. Resistance to EGFR inhibition may be circumvented by combination therapy employing EGFR inhibitors together with other treatment modalities.

Author(s):  
Swathi R. Shetty ◽  
Ragini Yeeravalli ◽  
Tanya Bera ◽  
Amitava Das

: Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), a type-I transmembrane protein with intrinsic tyrosine kinase activity is activated by peptide growth factors such as EGF, epigen, amphiregulin, etc. EGFR plays a vital role in regulating cell growth, migration, and differentiation in various tissue-specific cancers. It has been reported to be overexpressed in lung, head, and neck, colon, brain, pancreatic, and breast cancer that trigger tumor progression and drug resistance. EGFR overexpression alters the signaling pathway and induces cell division, invasion, and cell survival. Our prior studies demonstrated that EGFR inhibition modulates chemosensitivity in breast cancer stem cells thereby serving as a potential drug target for breast cancer mitigation. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (Lapatinib, Neratinib) and monoclonal antibodies (Trastuzumab) targeting EGFR have been developed and approved by the US FDA for clinical use against breast cancer. This review highlights the critical role of EGFR in breast cancer progression and enumerates the various approaches being undertaken to inhibit aggressive breast cancers by suppressing the downstream pathways. Further, the mechanisms of action of potential molecules at various stages of drug development as well as clinically approved drugs for breast cancer treatment are illustrated.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (19) ◽  
pp. 4700 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Wang ◽  
Svetlana Philippovich ◽  
Jun Mao ◽  
Rakesh N. Veedu

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is associated with the progression of a wide range of cancers including breast, glioma, lung, and liver cancer. The observation that EGFR inhibition can limit the growth of EGFR positive cancers has led to the development of various EGFR inhibitors including monoclonal antibodies and small-molecule inhibitors. However, the reported toxicity and drug resistance greatly compromised the clinical outcome of such inhibitors. As a type of chemical antibodies, nucleic acid aptamer provides an opportunity to overcome the obstacles faced by current EGFR inhibitors. In this study, we have developed and investigated the therapeutic potential of a 27mer aptamer CL-4RNV616 containing 2′-O-Methyl RNA and DNA nucleotides. Our results showed that CL-4RNV616 not only displayed enhanced stability in human serum, but also effectively recognized and inhibited the proliferation of EGFR positive Huh-7 liver cancer, MDA-MB-231 breast cancer, and U87MG glioblastoma cells, with an IC50 value of 258.9 nM, 413.7 nM, and 567.9 nM, respectively. Furthermore, TUNEL apoptosis assay revealed that CL-4RNV616 efficiently induced apoptosis of cancer cells. In addition, clinical breast cancer biopsy-based immunostaining assay demonstrated that CL-4RNV616 had a comparable detection efficacy for EGFR positive breast cancer with commonly used commercial antibodies. Based on the results, we firmly believe that CL-4RNV616 could be useful in the development of targeted cancer therapeutics and diagnostics.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 923-939
Author(s):  
Sourav Kalra ◽  
Gaurav Joshi ◽  
Manvendra Kumar ◽  
Sahil Arora ◽  
Harsimrat Kaur ◽  
...  

Imidazole-based epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors were computationally designed and synthesized.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Tukur Ibrahim ◽  
Adamu Uzairu ◽  
Gideon Adamu Shallangwa ◽  
Sani Uba

Abstract Background The discovery of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors for the treatment of lung cancer, most especially non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), was one of the major challenges encountered by the medicinal chemist in the world. The treatment of EGFR tyrosine kinase to manage NSCLCs becomes an urgent therapeutic necessity. NSCLC was the foremost cause of cancer mortality worldwide. Therefore, there is a need to develop more EGFR inhibitors due to the development of drug resistance by the mutation. This research is aimed at designing new EGFR inhibitors using a structure-based design approach. Structure-based drug design comprises several steps such as protein structure retrieval and preparation, ligand library preparation, docking, and structural modification on the best hit compound to design new ones. Result Molecular docking virtual screening on fifty sets of quinazoline derivatives/epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors against their target protein (EGFR tyrosine kinase receptor PDB entry: 3IKA) and pharmacokinetic profile predictions were performed to identify hit compounds with promising affinities toward their target and good pharmacokinetic profiles. The hit compounds identified were compound 6 with a binding affinity of − 9.3 kcal/mol, compounds 5 and 8, each with a binding affinity of − 9.1 kcal/mol, respectively. The three hit compounds bound to EGFR tyrosine kinase receptor via four different types of interactions which include conventional hydrogen bond, carbon-hydrogen bond, electrostatic, and hydrophobic interactions, respectively. The best hit (compound 6) among the 3 hit compounds was retained as a template and used to design sixteen new EGFR inhibitors. The sixteen newly designed compounds were also docked into the active site of EGFR tyrosine kinase receptor to study their mode of interactions with the receptor. The binding affinities of these newly designed compounds range from − 9.5 kcal/mol to − 10.2 kcal/mol. The pharmacokinetic profile predictions of these newly designed compounds were further examined and found to be orally bioavailable with good absorption, low toxicity level, and permeable properties. Conclusion The sixteen newly designed EGFR inhibitors were found to have better binding affinities than the template used in the designing process and afatinib the positive control (an FDA approved EGFR inhibitor). None of these designed compounds was found to violate more than the permissible limit set by RO5. More so, the newly designed compounds were found to have good synthetic accessibility which indicates that these newly designed compounds can be easily synthesized in the laboratory.


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