DMAPT inhibits NF-κB activity and increases sensitivity of prostate cancer cells to X-rays in vitro and in tumor xenografts in vivo.

Constitutive activation of the pro-survival transcription factor NF-κB has been associated with resistance to both chemotherapy and radiation therapy in many human cancers, including prostate cancer. Our lab and others have demonstrated that the natural product parthenolide can inhibit NF-κB activity and sensitize PC-3 prostate cancers cells to X-rays in vitro; however, parthenolide has poor bioavailability in vivo and therefore has little clinical utility in this regard. We show here that treatment of PC-3 and DU145 human prostate cancer cells with dimethylaminoparthenolide (DMAPT), a parthenolide derivative with increased bioavailability, inhibits constitutive and radiation-induced NF-κB binding activity and slows prostate cancer cell growth. We also show that DMAPT increases single and fractionated X-ray-induced killing of prostate cancer cells through inhibition of DNA double strand break repair and also that DMAPT-induced radiosensitization is, at least partially, dependent upon the alteration of intracellular thiol reduction-oxidation chemistry. Finally, we demonstrate that the treatment of PC-3 prostate tumor xenografts with oral DMAPT in addition to radiation therapy significantly decreases tumor growth and results in significantly smaller tumor volumes compared to xenografts treated with either DMAPT or radiation therapy alone, suggesting that DMAPT might have a potential clinical role as a radiosensitizing agent in the treatment of prostate cancer.

Optogenetic regulation of site-specific subtelomeric DNA methylation.

Telomere length homeostasis, critical for chromosomal integrity and genome stability, is controlled by intricate molecular regulatory machinery that includes epigenetic modifications. Here, we examine site-specific and spatiotemporal alteration of the subtelomeric methylation of CpG islands using optogenetic tools to understand the epigenetic regulatory mechanisms of telomere length maintenance. Human DNA methyltransferase3A (DNMT3A) were assembled selectively at chromosome ends by fusion to cryptochrome 2 protein (CRY2) and its interacting complement, the basic helix loop helix protein-1 (CIB1). CIB1 was fused to the telomere-associated protein telomere repeat binding factor-1 (TRF1), which localized the protein complex DNMT3A-CRY2 at telomeric regions upon excitation by blue-light monitored by single-molecule fluorescence analyses. Increased methylation was achieved selectively at subtelomeric CpG sites on the six examined chromosome ends specifically after blue-light activation, which resulted in progressive increase in telomere length over three generations of HeLa cell replications. The modular design of the fusion constructs presented here allows for the selective substitution of other chromatin modifying enzymes and for loci-specific targeting to regulate the epigenetic pathways at telomeres and other selected genomic regions of interest.