Mechanistic model of MAPK signaling reveals how allostery and rewiring contribute to drug resistance

BRAF is prototypical of oncogenes that can be targeted therapeutically and the treatment of BRAF(V600E) melanomas with RAF and MEK inhibitors results in rapid tumor regression. However, drug-induced rewiring generates a drug adapted state thought to be involved in acquired resistance and disease recurrence. In this article, we study mechanisms of adaptive rewiring in BRAF(V600E) melanoma cells using an energy-based implementation of ordinary differential equation (ODE) modeling in combination with proteomic, transcriptomic and imaging data. We develop a method for causal tracing of ODE models and identify two parallel MAPK reaction channels that are differentially sensitive to RAF and MEK inhibitors due to differences in protein oligomerization and drug binding. We describe how these channels, and timescale separation between immediate-early signaling and transcriptional feedback, create a state in which the RAS-regulated MAPK channel can be activated by growth factors under conditions in which the BRAF(V600E)-driven channel is fully inhibited. Further development of the approaches in this article is expected to yield a unified model of adaptive drug resistance in melanoma.