Fol. Biol. 2016, 62, 167-174

https://doi.org/10.14712/fb2016062040167

Comparison of the Radiosensitizing Effect of ATR, ATM and DNA-PK Kinase Inhibitors on Cervical Carcinoma Cells

Jiřina Vávrová1, L. Zárybnická1, P. Jošt2, A. Tichý1, M. Řezáčová3, Z. Šinkorová1, J. Pejchal1

1Department of Radiobiology, Faculty of Military Health Sciences, Hradec Králové, University of Defence Brno, Czech Republic
2Centre of Advanced Studies, Faculty of Military Health Sciences, Hradec Králové, University of Defence Brno, Czech Republic
3Institute of Medical Biochemistry, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

Received November 2015
Accepted April 2016

Here, we compared the effects of inhibitors of three phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase-related kinases, ATM, ATR a DNA-PK, on radiosensitization of cervical carcinoma cells. We demonstrated that DNA-PK inhibitor NU7441 enhanced phosphorylation of Chk1 and Chk2 kinases 2 h after irradiation of HeLa cells at a dose of 8 Gy in contrast to ATM kinase inhibitor KU55933, which completely blocked the Chk2 kinase phosphorylation on threonine 68, and ATR kinase inhibitor VE-821, which blocked the Chk1 kinase phosphorylation on serine 345. Most HeLa cells were accumulated in G2 phase of the cell cycle 24 h after irradiation at a high dose of 15 Gy, which was even potentiated after adding the inhibitors NU7441 and KU55933. Compared to all other irradiated groups, inhibitor VE-821 increased the number of cells in S phase and reduced the number of cells in G2 phase 24 h after irradiation at the high dose of 15 Gy. HeLa cells entered the mitotic cycle with unrepaired DNA, which resulted in cell death and the radiosensitizing effect of VE-821. Short-term application of the inhibitors (2 h before and 30 min after the irradiation by the dose of 8 Gy) significantly decreased the colony-forming ability of HeLa cells. Using real-time monitoring of cell proliferation by the xCELLigence system we demonstrated that while the radiosensitizing effect of VE-821 (ATR inhibitor) is manifested early after the irradiation, the radiosensitizing effect of KU55933 (ATM inhibitor) and NU7441 (DNA-PK inhibitor) is only observed as late as 72 h after the irradiation.

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Defence, Czech Republic – long-term organization development plan No. 1011.

References

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