Zhao X, Ren Y, Lawlor M, Shah BD, Park PMC, Lwin T, Wang X, Liu K, Wang M, Gao J, Li T, Xu M, Silva AS, Lee K, Zhang T, Koomen JM, Jiang H, Sudalagunta PR, Meads MB, Cheng F, Bi C, Fu K, Fan H, Dalton WS, Moscinski LC, Shain KH, Sotomayor EM, Wang GG, Gra
Drug-tolerant "persister" tumor cells underlie emergence of drug-resistant clones and contribute to relapse and disease progression. Here we report that resistance to the BCL-2 targeting drug ABT-199 in models of mantle cell lymphoma and double-hit lymphoma evolves from outgrowth of persister clones displaying loss of 18q21 amplicons that harbor BCL2. Further, persister status is generated via adaptive super-enhancer remodeling that reprograms transcription and offers opportunities for overcoming ABT-199 resistance. Notably, pharmacoproteomic and pharmacogenomic screens revealed that persisters are vulnerable to inhibition of the transcriptional machinery and especially to inhibition of cyclin-dependent kinase 7 (CDK7), which is essential for the transcriptional reprogramming that drives and sustains ABT-199 resistance. Thus, transcription-targeting agents offer new approaches to disable drug resistance in B-cell lymphomas.
