RESUMO
Artesunate, the active agent from Artemisia annua L. used in the traditional Chinese medicine, is being applied as a first-line drug for malaria treatment, and trials are ongoing that include this drug in cancer therapy. Despite increasing interest in its therapeutic application, the mode of cell killing provoked by artesunate in human cells is unknown. Here, we show that artesunate is a powerful inducer of oxidative DNA damage, giving rise to formamidopyrimidine DNA glycosylase-sensitive sites and the formation of 8-oxoguanine and 1,N6-ethenoadenine. Oxidative DNA damage was induced in LN-229 human glioblastoma cells dose dependently and was paralleled by cell death executed by apoptosis and necrosis, which could be attenuated by radical scavengers such as N-acetyl cysteine. Oxidative DNA damage resulted in DNA double-strand breaks (DSB) as determined by γH2AX foci that colocalized with 53BP1. Upon chronic treatment with artesunate, the level of DSB continuously increased over the treatment period up to a steady-state level, which is in contrast to ionizing radiation that induced a burst of DSB followed by a decline due to their repair. Knockdown of Rad51 by short interfering RNA and inactivation of DNA-PK strongly sensitized glioma cells to artesunate. These data indicate that both homologous recombination and nonhomologous end joining are involved in the repair of artesunate-induced DSB. Artesunate provoked a DNA damage response (DDR) with phosphorylation of ATM, ATR, Chk1, and Chk2. Overall, these data revealed that artesunate induces oxidative DNA lesions and DSB that continuously increase during the treatment period and accumulate until they trigger DDR and finally tumor cell death.
Assuntos
Artemisininas/farmacologia , Quebras de DNA de Cadeia Dupla/efeitos dos fármacos , Dano ao DNA , Reparo do DNA/efeitos dos fármacos , Neoplasias/patologia , Estresse Oxidativo/efeitos dos fármacos , Antineoplásicos Fitogênicos/farmacologia , Antineoplásicos Fitogênicos/uso terapêutico , Apoptose/efeitos dos fármacos , Apoptose/genética , Artemisininas/uso terapêutico , Artesunato , Proteínas Mutadas de Ataxia Telangiectasia , Proteínas de Ciclo Celular/metabolismo , Dano ao DNA/efeitos dos fármacos , Reparo do DNA/genética , Proteínas de Ligação a DNA/metabolismo , Avaliação Pré-Clínica de Medicamentos , Humanos , Modelos Biológicos , Neoplasias/tratamento farmacológico , Neoplasias/genética , Neoplasias/metabolismo , Estresse Oxidativo/genética , Proteínas Serina-Treonina Quinases/metabolismo , Células Tumorais Cultivadas , Proteínas Supressoras de Tumor/metabolismo , Regulação para Cima/efeitos dos fármacosRESUMO
Cells respond to genotoxic stress with the induction of DNA damage defence functions. Aimed at identifying novel players in this response, we analysed the genotoxic stress-induced expression of DNA repair genes in mouse fibroblasts proficient and deficient for c-Fos or c-Jun. The experiments revealed a clear up-regulation of the three prime exonuclease I (trex1) mRNA following ultraviolet (UV) light treatment. This occurred in the wild-type but not c-fos and c-jun null cells, indicating the involvement of AP-1 in trex1 induction. Trex1 up-regulation was also observed in human cells and was found on promoter, RNA and protein level. Apart from UV light, TREX1 is induced by other DNA damaging agents such as benzo(a)pyrene and hydrogen peroxide. The mouse and human trex1 promoter harbours an AP-1 binding site that is recognized by c-Fos and c-Jun, and its mutational inactivation abrogated trex1 induction. Upon genotoxic stress, TREX1 is not only up-regulated but also translocated into the nucleus. Cells deficient in TREX1 show reduced recovery from the UV and benzo(a)pyrene-induced replication inhibition and increased sensitivity towards the genotoxins compared to the isogenic control. The data revealed trex1 as a novel DNA damage-inducible repair gene that plays a protective role in the genotoxic stress response.