Abstract A021: Clinical and molecular characterization of naturally-occurring colorectal cancer in rhesus macaques reveals mismatch repair deficiency driven by epigenetic silencing of MLH1


 Naturally occurring colorectal cancers (CRC) in rhesus macaques share many features with their human counterparts and emerge at similar life stages as in human patients, but the carcinogenesis and molecular background remain elusive, limiting the value of the model for human disease and cancer therapy. In order to better understand this naturally occurring model, we established a diagnostic and staging pipeline including imaging (18F-FDG PET, plain and contrast-enhanced CT), histopathology, and clinical assessments. We observed cancer symptoms and co-morbidities in our cohort (n=16, all Indian-origin, 11 females, mean age at arrival 20.2y) such as hypoalbuminemia, fecal occult blood, and microcytic anemia, as frequently described in human CRC patients. Pathologically, all cancers were right-sided, involving the proximal colon and/or ileocecocolic junction, and most were densely fibrotic, restricting the colonic lumen. Most cancers appeared with glandular morphology and some (18.8%) had mucinous components. Immunohistochemistry revealed loss of MLH1 and PMS2 in 100% of investigated CRCs, indicating mismatch repair deficiency which furthermore resulted in microsatellite instability (PCR & fragment analysis). Whole exome sequencing revealed the close genetic relatedness to human CRCs, particularly exemplified by mutations affecting KRAS (37.5%, e.g., p.G12D), APC (31.3%), TP53 (18.8%, e.g. p.R175H), ARID1A (56.3%), and ALK (43.8%), as similarly annotated in the human COSMIC database. Nonetheless, somatic mutations do not explain the loss of MLH1 in the entire CRC cohort. Transcriptomics on the other hand revealed the transcriptional suppression of MLH1 but not MSH2, MSH6, or PMS2 in rhesus CRC in comparison to adjacent healthy colon. Moreover, comparison of differentially expressed gene sets of rhesus CRC with a human annotated database (IPA) confirmed the disease similarities observed clinically, genetically, and histopathologically. Subsequently, we investigated DNA methylation of the promoter region of MLH1 and retranslated markers for the CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP) as described in human CRC. While only 56.3% of CRCs were considered CIMP positive (≥3/5 markers hypermethylated), 100% of investigated CRCs exhibited MLH1 promoter hypermethylation. As a result, epigenetic silencing is suggested to suppress MLH1 transcription, cause the loss of MLH1 protein, and drive mismatch repair deficiency and genomic instability in naturally occurring CRC in rhesus macaques. We therefore consider spontaneous, uninduced CRC in rhesus macaques, their treatment-naïve nature, and their unaltered immune competence an outstanding model for human disease and in particular for human cancer immunotherapy.
 Citation Format: Simon Deycmar, Brendan Johnson, Karina Ray, David Caudell Caudell, John Olson, Greg Dugan, W. Shane Sills, Declan Ryan, Christopher Whitlow, Kiran K. Solingapuram Sai, Betsy Ferguson, Benjamin Bimber, Cassandra Cullin, Brandy Dozier, Emily Romero, Francois Villinger, Armando Burgos, Jeff Chou, Bruno Gomes, Michael Hettich, Maurizio Ceppi, Jehad Charo, J. Mark Cline. Clinical and molecular characterization of naturally-occurring colorectal cancer in rhesus macaques reveals mismatch repair deficiency driven by epigenetic silencing of MLH1 [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Colorectal Cancer; 2022 Oct 1-4; Portland, OR. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(23 Suppl_1):Abstract nr A021.