<i>EGFR</i> Missense Mutations Sensitize Cells to EGFR Kinase Inhibitors

<div><p>(A) Effect of increasing concentrations of the EGFR inhibitor erlotinib (0–10 μM) on the viability of IL-3 independent Ba/F3 subclones expressing EGFR ectodomain mutants (R108K, T263P, A289V, G598V, and EGFRvIII), the EGFR kinase domain mutants (L858R and L861Q), or the erlotinib-resistant EGFR double mutant L858R-T790M (LTM). Parental Ba/F3 cells and Ba/F3 cells expressing wild-type EGFR are not IL-3 independent and were included as controls. Viability (a mean percent of control ± standard deviation) was determined after exposure to erlotinib for 48 h.</p> <p>(B) Oncogenic EGFR ectodomain mutations map to interdomain interfaces. Shown are ribbon and surface diagrams of the EGFR [<a href="http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030485#pmed-0030485-b046" target="_blank">46</a>] with sites of amino acid substitutions highlighted. Blue, domain I; green, domain II; red, domain III; and yellow, domain IV. Sites of the most prevalent amino acid substitutions are shown in red. Images were created with PyMOL (<a href="http://pymol.sourceforge.net/" target="_blank">http://pymol.sourceforge.net/</a>). P596 is not visible in this view.</p>