Combination of rapamycin and 17-allylamino-17-demethoxygeldanamycin abrogates Akt activation and potentiates mTOR blockade in breast cancer cells

Increased Akt phosphorylation was reported in cancer cell fines and tumor tissues of patients exposed to rapamycin, a response likely contributing to the attenuated antitumor activity of rapamycin. It is, therefore, necessary to develop and validate combination strategies to reverse rapamycin-induced Akt signaling. We now report that Akt activation in response to rapamycin is abrogated by 17-allylamino-17demethoxygeldanamycin (17-AAG), a heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) inhibitor. Rapamycin/17-AAG combination results in an enhanced anti proliferative activity in both MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells. In combination 17-AAG confers potent suppression of Raf-MEK-extracellular signal-regulated kinase signaling, a pathway that is otherwise not inhibited by rapamycin individually. Importantly, 17-AAG cooperates with rapamycin to block the phosphorylation of the mammalian target of rapamycin at Ser2448, as well as its downstream effectors ribosomal p70 S6 kinase and eukaryotic initiation factor 4E binding protein 1, which is accompanied by a substantial reduction in cyclins D1 and E. The potency of rapamycin/17-AAG combination is not affected by the activation of insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor signaling, which has been previously shown to diminish the antiproliferative activity of rapamycin. Rapamycin/17-AAG combination alleviates the induction of HSP90 protein, a heat shock response frequently associated with 17-AAG monotherapy. Our findings establish a mechanistic rationale for a combination approach using rapamycin and 17-AAG in the treatment of breast cancer.