The BRCA2 gene is a potential molecular target during 5-fluorouracil therapy in human oral cancer cells
ONCOLOGY REPORTS
Authors: Nakagawa, Yosuke; Kajihara, Atsuhisa; Takahashi, Akihisa; Kondo, Natsuko; Mori, Eiichiro; Kirita, Tadaaki; Ohnishi, Takeo
Abstract
5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) is widely used in clinical cancer therapy. It is commonly used either alone or in combination with other drugs and/or radiation for head and neck, and other types of cancers. 5-FU induces DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). Inhibition of the repair of 5-FU-induced DSBs may improve the therapeutic response in many tumors to this anticancer agent. The aim of the present study was to further our understanding of the pathways which are involved in the repair of 5-FU-induced DSBs. Cell survival after drug treatment was examined with colony forming assays using Chinese hamster lung fibroblast cells or Chinese hamster ovary cell lines which are deficient in DSB repair pathways involving the homologous recombination repair-related genes BRCA2 and XRCC2, and the non-homologous end joining repair-related genes DNA-PKcs and Ku80. It was found that BRCA2 was involved in such repair, and may be effectively targeted to inhibit the repair of 5-FU-induced damage. Observations showed that knockdown of BRCA2 using small interference RNA suppression increased the sensitivity to 5-FU of human oral cancer cell lines (SAS and HSC3). These findings suggest that downregulation of BRCA2 may be useful for sensitizing tumor cells during 5-FU chemotherapy.
Endosulfan causes the alterations of DNA damage response through ATM-p53 signaling pathway in human leukemia cells
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
Authors: Xu, Dan; Liang, Dong; Guo, Yubing; Sun, Yeqing
Abstract
Exposure to pesticides results in DNA damage and genomic instability. We previously predicted that endosulfan might be associated with leukemia, but the role of endosulfan in leukemia cells has been unexplored. The aim of this study is to elucidate molecular mechanism of endosulfan-induced DNA damage response in human leukemia cells. We performed endosulfan exposure experiments in K562 cells with varying concentrations of endosulfan for 48 h and found that endosulfan lowered cell viability in a dose-dependent manner. We observed the dramatic DNA damage using comet assay and the increase of micronucleus in 75 mu M endosulfan-exposed cells. Endosulfan at 75 mu M caused the expression alterations of ATM and DNA repair genes such as FANCD2, and BRCA1/2 at different exposure time points (12, 24, 48 h), which was reversed by ATM inhibitor KU-55933. Endosulfan significantly increased the mRNA expression levels of p53 and GADD45A, and decreased PCNA and XRCC2 at 48 h after exposure. Flow cytometric analysis showed that endosulfan at 50 and 75 mu M induced cell cycle G1 arrest, a response attributed to down-regulation of CDK6 and up-regulation of p21. We also observed that endosulfan at 50 and 75 mu M induced a considerable percentage of cells to undergo apoptosis, as detected by Annexin-V binding assays. Endosulfan resulted in the activation of caspase-3, and elevated the expression levels of PUMA and the ratio of BAX/Bcl-2. These findings suggest that endosulfan caused DNA damage response throughATM-p53 signaling pathway, implicating the potential correlation between endosulfan and leukemia. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.