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PolyADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors (PARPis) represent the first clinically approved drugs able to provoke “synthetic lethality” in patients with homologous recombination-deficient (HRD) tumors. Four PARPis have just received approval for the treatment of several types of cancer. Besides, another three additional PARPis underlying the same mechanism of action are currently under investigation. Despite the success of these targeted agents, the increasing use of PARPis in clinical practice for the treatment of different tumors raised the issue of PARPis resistance, and the consequent disease relapse and dismal prognosis for patients. Several mechanisms of resistance have been investigated, and ongoing studies are currently focusing on strategies to address this challenge and overcome PARPis resistance. This review aims to analyze the mechanisms underlying PARPis resistance known today and discuss potential therapeutic strategies to overcome these processes of resistance in the future.

The use of PARP inhibitors (PARPi) is growing widely as FDA approvals have shifted its use from the recurrence setting to the frontline setting. In parallel, the population developing PARPi resistance is increasing. Here we review the role of PARP, DNA damage repair, and synthetic lethality. We discuss mechanisms of resistance to PARP inhibition and how this informs on novel combinations to re-sensitize cancer cells to PARPi.

Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors (PARPi) exploit the concept of synthetic lethality and offer great promise in the treatment of tumors with deficiencies in homologous recombination (HR) repair. PARPi exert antitumor activity by blocking Poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation (PARylation) and trapping PARP1 on damaged DNA. To date, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved four PARPi for the treatment of several cancer types including ovarian, breast, pancreatic and prostate cancer. Although patients with HR-deficient tumors benefit from PARPi, majority of tumors ultimately develop acquired resistance to PARPi. Furthermore, even though BRCA1/2 mutations are commonly used as markers of PARPi sensitivity in current clinical practice, not all patients with BRCA1/2 mutations have PARPi-sensitive disease. Thus, there is an urgent need to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of PARPi resistance to support the development of rational effective treatment strategies aimed at overcoming resistance to PARPi, as well as reliable biomarkers to accurately identify patients who will most likely benefit from treatment with PARPi, either as monotherapy or in combination with other agents, so called marker-guided effective therapy (Mget). In this review, we summarize the molecular mechanisms driving the efficacy of and resistance to PARPi as well as emerging therapeutic strategies to overcome PARPi resistance. We also highlight the identification of potential markers to predict PARPi resistance and guide promising PARPi-based combination strategies.

Glioblastoma multiform is the most aggressive primary type of brain tumor, representing 54% of all gliomas. The average life span for glioblastoma multiform is around 14–15 months instead of treatment. The current treatment for glioblastoma multiform includes surgical removal of the tumor followed by radiation therapy and temozolomide chemotherapy for 6.5 months, followed by another 6 months of maintenance therapy with temozolomide chemotherapy (5 days every month). However, resistance to temozolomide is frequently one of the limiting factors in effective treatment. Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors have recently been investigated as sensitizing drugs to enhance temozolomide potency. However, clinical use of PARP inhibitors in glioblastoma multiform is difficult due to a number of factors such as limited blood–brain barrier penetration of PARP inhibitors, inducing resistance due to frequent use of PARP inhibitors, and overlapping hematologic toxicities of PARP inhibitors when co-administered with glioblastoma multiform standard treatment (radiation therapy and temozolomide). This review elucidates the role of PARP inhibitors in temozolomide resistance, multiple factors that make development of these PARP inhibitor drugs challenging, and the strategies such as the development of targeted drug therapies and combination therapy to combat the resistance of PARP inhibitors that can be adopted to overcome these challenges.

Breast cancer and gynecological tumors seriously endanger women’s physical and mental health, fertility, and quality of life. Due to standardized surgical treatment, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, the prognosis and overall survival of cancer patients have improved compared to earlier, but the management of advanced disease still faces great challenges. Recently, poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors (PARPis) have been clinically approved for breast and gynecological cancer patients, significantly improving their quality of life, especially of patients with BRCA1/2 mutations. However, drug resistance faced by PARPi therapy has hindered its clinical promotion. Therefore, developing new drug strategies to resensitize cancers affecting women to PARPi therapy is the direction of our future research. Currently, the effects of PARPi in combination with other drugs to overcome drug resistance are being studied. In this article, we review the mechanisms of PARPi resistance and summarize the current combination of clinical trials that can improve its resistance, with a view to identify the best clinical treatment to save the lives of patients.

Poly (adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase inhibitors (PARPi) have significantly improved the treatment of advanced ovarian cancer, however, there are still many aspects of their use that require further understanding. The optimal duration, timing and dosage of these agents and how to manage (oligo) progression occurring both during and following PARPi therapy are discussed. The evidence supporting their rechallenge, and how to overcome resistance are addressed. The long-term impacts of PARPi and monitoring patients during therapy are all important research themes to expand on. Plain language summary PARP inhibitors: challenges and uncertainties within ovarian cancer PARP inhibitors are tablet medications used to treat ovarian cancer and have significantly improved the survival prospects of women with the disease, especially if they have a BRCA gene mutation. As their use has become more widespread, some challenges and uncertainties have emerged. These include the optimum length of time that these drugs should be used, both when used as treatment to prolong the response after first-line chemotherapy or to treat disease that has later progressed (relapsed) after chemotherapy. The degree of benefit of PARPi in patients without a BRCA mutation remains less clear. It is also not known whether PARPi could be beneficial if used before ovarian cancer surgery, and clinical studies are underway to assess this. While PARPi can be effective initially, many patients will develop resistance to these drugs, leading to relapse of their cancer. Proventing or overcoming this remains a key challenge. Re-use of the PARPi, when the amount of the disease at relapse is small, or re-using PARPi after radiotherapy or surgery, have been explored but the benefit is not yet clear. Similarly, combining the PARPI and another drug to prevent resistance is currently under investigation. The best way to monitor patients on PARPi for cancer relapse is also an area of uncertainty report. The full extent of long-term toxicities is becoming apparent as clinical studies report long-term data. Future research in ovarian cancer should focus on resolving ways to overcome the resistance associated with PARPi, developing more precise ways to select for those patients who would benefit most from their use. Addressing these challenges and unknowns will be important for optimising the use of PARPi in ovarian cancer treatment and further improving survival rates.

In mammalian cells, DNA damage response initiates repair by error-free homologous recombination (HRR) or by error-prone non-homologous end joining (NHEJ). DNA damage is detected by PARP proteins that facilitate this repair, both in normal cells and in cancer cells. Cells containing BRCA1/2 mutations have an HRR-deficient repair mechanism which may result in unrepaired one-ended double-strand breaks and stalled replication forks, considered as the most lethal cell damage. Here, we review the state of the art of the role of Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors as a precision-targeted anticancer drug in BRCA1/2-mutated female breast cancer. Although knowledge is incomplete, it is assumed that the main role of the archetype PARP1 in the cell nucleus is to detect and adhere to single-strand breaks. This mediates possible damage repair, after which cells may continue replication; this process is called synthetic lethality. As for PARP clinical monotherapy, progression-free survival has been observed using the FDA- and EMA-approved drugs olaparib and talazoparib. In the case of combined drug therapy, a synergy has been demonstrated between veliparib and platinum drugs. Information regarding adverse effects is limited, but hematological effects have been described. However, there is need for multicenter trials, preferably conducted without commercial guidance and funding. Some of the available trials reported resistance to PARP inhibitors. In this review, we also describe the various causes of resistance to PARP inhibitors and research indicating how resistance can be overcome.

The pharmacological inhibitors of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) family of proteins have shown promising results in preclinical studies and clinical trials as a monotherapy or in combination therapy for some cancers. Thus, usage of PARP-inhibitors (PARPi) in cancer therapy is bound to increase with time, but resistance of cancer cells to PARPi is also beginning to be observed. Here we review different known and potential mechanisms by which: (i) PARPi kill cancer cells; and (ii) cancer cells develop resistance to PARPi. Understanding the lethality caused by PARPi and the countermeasures deployed by cancers cells to survive PARPi will help us rationalize the use of this new class of drugs in cancer therapy.

Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors (PARPi) have attracted significant attention in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) treatment. However, the acquired or de novo PARP inhibitor resistance limits treatment success. Ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3-related (ATR) regulates genome integrity, and thus, the aberrant activation of ATR could play a significant role in the pathogenesis of TNBC and be associated with PARPi resistance in especially homologous recombinant deficiency tumors. We aimed to assess the efficacy of ATR and PARP inhibitors combination in TNBC cells and the reversal of PARPi resistance in resistant cells. HCC1937 and HCC1937-R Talazoparib (TAL) resistant cells were treated with Elimusertib (ELI) alone as ATR inhibitor (ATRi) and ELI and TAL combination. Then, the cytotoxic, apoptotic and ATR based DNA damage response (DDR) were evaluated by WST-1, Annexin V, AO/PI, cell cycle and western blot analysis. Our results showed that the ELI and TAL combination could overcome TAL resistance by downregulating cell cycle checkpoint proteins and ATR-based DDR pathways through synergistic effects (ZIP score > 10). The overexpression of ATR and associated cell cycle proteins could play a role in PARPi resistance. However, this combination did not exert synergism in TNBC cells despite a higher apoptotic rate and increased DNA damage compared with the drug alone. Therefore, the dual targeting of ATR and PARP is a promising modality to reverse PARPi resistance with the downregulation of ATR-Chk1 based DNA damage response. However, further preclinical and clinical investigations should be required to elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms behind ATRi and PARPi interactions in TNBC cells.

Breast cancer is the most frequent and lethal tumor in women and finding the best therapeutic strategy for each patient is an important challenge. PARP inhibitors (PARPis) are the first, clinically approved drugs designed to exploit synthetic lethality in tumors harboring BRCA1/2 mutations. Recent evidence indicates that PARPis have the potential to be used both in monotherapy and combination strategies in breast cancer treatment. In this review, we show the mechanism of action of PARPis and discuss the latest clinical applications in different breast cancer treatment settings, including the use as neoadjuvant and adjuvant approaches. Furthermore, as a class, PARPis show many similarities but also certain critical differences which can have essential clinical implications. Finally, we report the current knowledge about the resistance mechanisms to PARPis. A systematic PubMed search, using the entry terms “PARP inhibitors” and “breast cancer”, was performed to identify all published clinical trials (Phase I-II-III) and ongoing trials (ClinicalTrials.gov), that have been reported and discussed in this review.