Journal Article

Targeting abnormal DNA double-strand break repair in tyrosine kinase inhibitor-resistant chronic myeloid leukemias

Gojo, I, Tobin, L A, Robert, C, Rapoport, A P, Tomkinson, A E, Rassool, F V, Baer, M R

2013

Overview

Resistance to imatinib (IM) and other tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI)s is an increasing problem in leukemias caused by expression of BCR-ABL1. As chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) cell lines expressing BCR-ABL1 utilize an alternative non-homologous end-joining pathway (ALT NHEJ) to repair DNA double-strand breaks (DSB)s, we asked whether this repair pathway is a novel therapeutic target in TKI-resistant disease. Notably, the steady state levels of two ALT NHEJ proteins, poly-(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP1) and DNA ligase IIIα, were increased in the BCR-ABL1-positive CML cell line K562 and, to a greater extent, in its imatinib-resistant (IMR) derivative. Incubation of these cell lines with a combination of DNA ligase and PARP inhibitors inhibited ALT NHEJ and selectively decreased survival with the effect being greater in the IMR derivative. Similar results were obtained with TKI-resistant derivatives of two hematopoietic cell lines that had been engineered to stably express BCR-ABL1. Together our results show that the sensitivity of cell lines expressing BCR-ABL1 to the combination of DNA ligase and PARP inhibitors correlates with the steady state levels of PARP1 and DNA ligase IIIα, and ALT NHEJ activity. Importantly, analysis of clinical samples from CML patients confirmed that the expression levels of PARP1 and DNA ligase IIIα correlated with the sensitivity to the DNA repair inhibitor combination. Thus, the expression levels of PARP1 and DNA ligase IIIα serve as biomarkers to identify a subgroup of CML patients who may be candidates for therapies that target the ALT NHEJ pathway when treatment with TKIs has failed.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group
• Subject: 631/337/1427/2122 / 631/67/1059/602 / 631/67/1990/283/1896 / Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Apoptosis / Apoptosis - drug effects / Benzamides - pharmacology / Blotting, Western / Care and treatment / Cell Biology / Cell Proliferation - drug effects / Chronic myeloid leukemia / Comparative Genomic Hybridization / Deoxyribonucleic acid / DNA / DNA Breaks, Double-Stranded - drug effects / DNA damage / DNA End-Joining Repair - drug effects / DNA Ligase ATP / DNA Ligases - antagonists & inhibitors / DNA Ligases - genetics / DNA Ligases - metabolism / DNA repair / Double-strand break repair / Drug resistance / Drug Resistance, Neoplasm - drug effects / Enzyme inhibitors / Enzyme Inhibitors - pharmacology / Fluorescent Antibody Technique / Fusion Proteins, bcr-abl - metabolism / Gene expression / Genetic aspects / Human Genetics / Humans / Imatinib / Imatinib Mesylate / Immunoenzyme Techniques / Internal Medicine / Kinases / Leukemia / Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive - drug therapy / Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive - genetics / Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive - pathology / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Myeloid leukemia / Non-homologous end joining / Oncology / original-article / Patients / Piperazines - pharmacology / Poly (ADP-Ribose) Polymerase-1 / Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase / Poly(ADP-ribose) Polymerase Inhibitors / Poly(ADP-ribose) Polymerases - genetics / Poly(ADP-ribose) Polymerases - metabolism / Poly-ADP-Ribose Binding Proteins / Protein Kinase Inhibitors - pharmacology / Pyrimidines - pharmacology / Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction / Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Ribose / RNA, Messenger - genetics / RNA, Small Interfering - genetics / Therapeutic targets / Tumor cell lines / Tumor Cells, Cultured / Tyrosine kinase inhibitors / Xenopus Proteins