# SNAI2 cooperates with MEK1/2 and HDACs to suppress BIM- and BMF-dependent apoptosis in TERT promoter mutant cancers

## TL;DR

This study explores how TERT promoter mutant cancers resist cell death and identifies potential drug combinations to overcome this resistance.

## Contribution

The study reveals a novel mechanism involving SNAI2, MEK1/2, and HDACs in suppressing apoptosis in TERT promoter mutant cancers.

## Key findings

- RAS pathway signaling in TERT promoter mutant cancers inhibits apoptosis by downregulating BIM.
- Combining MEK inhibition with a pan-BCL2 inhibitor significantly increases apoptosis in these cancers.
- HDAC inhibitors and SNAI2 suppression synergistically enhance apoptosis independent of DNA damage.

## Abstract

Cancers with TERT promoter mutations (TPM) display elevated RAS pathway signaling and mesenchymal traits, and associate with lower patient survival rates. We examined whether RAS pathway signaling in TPM cancers cooperates with mesenchymal features to drive resistance to apoptosis. We observed that RAS pathway signaling in TPM cancers inhibited apoptosis by downregulating the pro-apoptotic protein BIM. By using inhibitors of MEK1/2 kinases, we rescued the ability of TPM cancer cells to undergo apoptosis, which may have implications for targeted therapies. To further capitalize on this rescue, we explored combination treatments to drive apoptotic cell death. Treatment with the pan-BCL2 inhibitor, navitoclax (NX), in combination with MEK inhibition, significantly increased apoptosis, indicating that these cells are capable of undergoing intrinsic apoptosis, with BIM likely playing a critical role. Further, we found that transcriptional reprogramming of the mesenchymal state of TPM cancers using histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) resulted in a synergistic increase in apoptosis, contingent upon BIM de-repression. Notably, the cause of this apoptosis appeared to be independent of DNA damage. The suppression of the mesenchymal transcription factor SNAI2, which has known roles in recruiting HDACs to silence gene expression, amplified apoptosis. Mechanistically, knockdown of SNAI2 impaired the cellular DNA repair leading to elevated basal levels of phosphorylated H2AX. Our findings show that TPM cancers exhibit specific small molecule vulnerabilities, driven by the convergence of RAS-MEK signaling and impaired HDAC regulation dependent on pro-apoptotic BH3-only proteins. Based on our findings, we propose that stratifying cancers based on TPM may identify a subset of tumors that are responsive to innovative combinations of inhibitors targeting these axes.