Abstract
Brain metastasis occurs in up to 40% of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Considerable genomic heterogeneity exists between the primary lung tumour and respective brain metastasis; however, the identity of the genes capable of driving brain metastasis is incompletely understood. Here, we carried out an in vivo genome wide CRISPR activation (CRISPRa) screen to identify molecular drivers of brain metastasis from a NSCLC patient-derived xenograft model. We identified activation of the Alzheimer’s disease associated ß-site amyloid precursor protein cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE1) led to a significant increase in brain metastasis. BACE1 is highly expressed in NSCLC and patients with BACE1 expressed in their metastatic brain tumour survived for shorter periods. Genetic loss with CRISPR-Cas9 or pharmacological inhibition of BACE1 with MK-8931 decreased cell proliferation and sphere forming capacity in vitro. Furthermore, BACE1 knockout and MK-8931 treatment blocked brain metastasis in vivo. Mechanistically, we identified BACE1 activation lead to downstream signalling through MEK and ERK. Together our data highlights the power of in vivo CRISPR screening to identify novel molecular drivers and potential therapeutic targets of NSCLC brain metastasis.