• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.253-258
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• 2004

DNA double-strand break (DSB) is a serious treat for the cells including mutations, chromosome rearrangements, and even cell death if not repaired or misrepaired. Ku heterodimer regulatory DNA binding subunits (Ku70/Ku80) bound to double strand DNA breaks are able to interact with 470-kDa DNA-dependent protein kinase catalytic subunit (DNA-PKcs), and the interaction is essential for DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) activity. The Ku80 mutants were designed to bind Ku70 but not DNA end binding activity and the peptides were treated in breast cancer cells for co-therapy strategy to see whether the targeted inhibition of DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) activity sensitized breast cancer cells to ionizing irradiation or chemotherapy drug to develop a treatment of breast tumors by targeting proteins involved in damage-signaling pathway and/or DNA repair. We designed domains of Ku80 mutants, 26 residues of amino acids (HN-26) as a control peptide or 38 (HNI-38) residues of amino acids which contain domains of the membrane-translocation hydrophobic signal sequence and the nuclear localization sequence, but HNI-38 has additional twelve residues of peptide inhibitor region. We observed that the synthesized peptide (HNI-38) prevented DNA-PKcs from binding to Ku70/Ku80, resulting in inactivation of DNA-PK complex activity in breast cancer cells (MDA-465 and MDA-468). Consequently, the peptide treated cells exhibited poor to no DNA repair, and became highly sensitive to irradiation or chemotherapy drugs. The growth of breast cancer cells was also inhibited. These results demonstrate the possibility of synthetic peptide to apply breast cancer therapy to induce apoptosis of cancer cells.

• BMB Reports
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.432-438
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• 2007

V(D)J recombination, a site-specific gene rearrangement process occurring during the lymphocyte development, begins with DNA double strand breaks by two recombination activating gene products (RAG1/2) and finishes with the repair process by several proteins including DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK). In this report, we found that RAG2 was specifically phosphorylated by DNA-PK at the $365^{th}$ serine residue, and this phosphorylated RAG2 affected the V(D)J recombination activity in cells in the GFP expression-based assay. While the V(D)J recombination activity between wild-type RAG2 and mutant S365A RAG2 in the assay using a signal joint substrate was undistinguishable in DNA-PK deficient cells (M059J), the activity with wild-type RAG2 was largely increased in DNA-PK proficient cells (M059K) in comparison with mutant RAG2, suggesting that RAG2 phosphorylation by DNA-PK plays a crucial role in the signal joint formation during V(D)J recombination.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.15 no.3 s.70
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• pp.406-414
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• 2005

The genetic instability of cancer cells may be related to inappropriately activated DNA repair pathways. In present study, the modulated expression of DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK), a major DNA repair protein, in human cancer metastatic cells was tested. The expressions of Ku70/80, regulatory subunit of DNA-PK, and the Ku DNA-binding activity in various highly metastatic cell lines were higher than those in each parental cell line. Also, the expression of DNA-PKcs, catalytic subunit of DNA-PK, and the kinase activity of the whole DNA-PK complex in highly metastatic cells were significantly increased as compared to those of parental cells, suggesting that the enhanced DNA repair capacity of metastatic cells could be associated with aberrant use of DNA repair, which may mediate tumor progression and metastatic potential. Increased EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) signaling has been associated with tumor invasion and metastasis, and the linkage between EGFR-mediated signaling and DNA-PK has been suggested. This study showed that PKI166, the new EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor, modulated the expressions of Ku70/80 and DNA-PKcs and also revealed the chemosensitization effect of PKI166 against metastatic cells may be in part due to inhibition of Ku70/80. These results suggest that interference in EGFR signaling by EGFR inhibitor resulted in the impairment of DNA repair activity, and thus DNA-PK could be possible molecular targets for therapy against metastatic cancer cells.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.9-14
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• 2003

Recent studies indicated that cancer cells become resistant to ionizing radiation (IR) and chemotherapy drugs by enhanced DNA repair of the lesions. Therefore, it is expected to increase the killing of cancer cells and reduce drug resistance by inhibiting DNA repair pathways that tumor cells rely on to escape chemotherapy. There are a number of key human DNA repair pathways which depend on multimeric polypeptide activities. For example, Ku heterodimer regulatory DNA binding subunits (Ku70/Ku80) on binding to double strand DNA breaks (DSBs) are able to interact with 470-kDa DNA-dependent protein kinase catalytic subunit (DNA-PKcs), and are essential for DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) activity. It has been known that DNA-PK is an important factor for DNA repair and also is a sensor-transmitting damage signal to downstream targets, leading to cell cycles arrest. Our ultimate goal is to develop a treatment of breast tumors by targeting proteins involved in damage-signaling pathway and/or DNA repair. This would greatly facilitate tumor cell cytotoxic activity and programmed cell death through DNA damaging drug treatment. Therefore, we designed a domain of Ku80 mutants that binds to Ku70 but not DNA end binding activity and used the peptide in co-therapy strategy to see whether the targeted inhibition of DNA-PK activity sensitized breast cancer cells to irradiation or chemotherapy drug. We observed that the synthesized peptide (HNI-38) prevented DNA-PKcs from binding to Ku70/Ku80, thus resulting in inactivation of DNA-PK activity. Consequently, the peptide treated cells exhibited poor to no DNA repair, and became highly sensitive to IR or chemotherapy drugs, and the growth of breast cancer cells was inhibited. Additionally, the results obtained in the present study also support the physiological role of resistance of cancer cells to IR or chemotherapy.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.17 no.6 s.86
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• pp.748-755
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• 2007

The in vitro activity of ST1571, an inhibitor of the Abl group of protein-tyrosine kinases, alone or in combination with camptothecin (CPT), a specific topoisomerase I inhibitor, was evaluated against human cancer cells with different metastatic capacity and drug resistance potency. These cell lines showed different sensitivity to ST157 on growth inhibition, and the expression of DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK), which interacts constitutively with c-Abl, was significantly decreased in drug sensitive CEM and MCF-7 cells and poorly metastatic PC3 and KMl2 cells as compared with that of multidrug resistant CEM/MDR and MCF-7/MDR cells and highly metastatic PC3-MM2 and KM/L4a cells, respectively. These results suggest differential modulation of DNA-PK by ST1571 treatment in drug resistance and metastatic degree dependent manner. We showed that CPT as well as ST1571 significantly inhibits the expression of DNA-PK. The combined treatment with ST15fl and CPT revealed synergistic effect, and the effect was accompanied by inhibition of cell proliferation due to significant reduced expression of DNA-PK components, which resulted in CPT sensitizes human cancer cells resistant to ST1571. Therefore, the results of our study suggested that the suppression of DNA-PK using combination of ST1571 and CPT could be a novel molecular target for against drugresistant and metastatic cancer cells.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.175-182
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• 2008

DNA-dependent protein kinase(DNA-PK) is involved in joining DNA double-strand breaks induced by ionizing radiation or V(D)J recombination and is activated by DNA ends and composed of a DNA binding subunit, Ku, and a catalytic subunit, DNA-PKcs. It has been suggested that DNA-PK might be $2^{nd}$ upstream kinase for protein kinase B(PKB). In this report, we showed that Ser473 phosphorylation in the hydrophobic-motif of PKB is blocked in DNA-PK knockout mouse embryonic fibroblast cells(MEFs) following insulin stimulation, while there is no effect on Ser473 phosphorylation in DNA-PK wild type MEF cells. The observation is further confirmed in human glioblastoma cells expressing a mutant form of DNA-PK(M059J) and a wild-type of DNA-PK(M059K), indicating that DNA-PK is indeed important for PKB activation. Furthermore, the treatment of cells with doxorubicin, DNA-damage inducing agent, leads to PKB phosphorylation on Ser473 in control MEF cells while there is no response in DNA-PK knockout MEF cells. Together, these results proposed that DNA-PK has a potential role in insulin signaling as well as DNA-repair signaling pathway.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.200-205
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• 2023

DNA-dependent protein kinase catalytic subunit (DNA-PKcs), a member of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-related kinase family is a well-known player in repairing DNA double-strand break through non-homologous end joining pathway. This mechanism has allowed us to understand its critical role in T and B cell development through V(D)J recombination and class switch recombination, respectively. We have also learned that the defects in these mechanisms lead to the severely combined immunodeficiency (SCID). Here we highlight some of the latest evidence where DNA-PKcs has been shown to localize not only in the nucleus but also in the cytoplasm, phosphorylating various proteins involved in cellular metabolism and cytokine production. While it is an exciting time to unveil novel functions of DNA-PKcs, one should carefully choose experimental models to study DNA-PKcs as the experimental evidence has been shown to differ between cells of defective DNA-PKcs and those of DNA-PKcs knockout. Moreover, while there are several DNA-PK inhibitors currently being evaluated in the clinical trials in an attempt to increase the efficacy of radiotherapy or chemotherapy, multiple functions and subcellular localization of DNA-PKcs in various types of cells may further complicate the effects at the cellular and organismal level.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.241-247
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• 2003

While the DNA-protein kinase (DNA-PK) complex, comprised of DNA-PKcs and Ku80, is primary involved in the repair of DNA double-strand breaks, it is also believed to participate in additional cellular processes. Here, treatment of embryo fibroblasts (MEFs) derived from either wild-type (Wt) or DNA-PKcs-null (DNA-$PKcs^{-/-}$) mice with various stress inducing agents revealed that adriamycin was markedly more cytotoxic for $Ku80^{-/-}MEFs$ and led to their long-term accumulation in the $G_2$/M phase. This differential response was not due to differences in DNA repair, since adrimycin-triggered DNA damage was repaired with comparable efficiency in both Wt and $Ku80^{-/-}MEFs$, but was associated with differences in the expression of important cell cycle regulatory genes. Our results support the notion that Ku80-mediated cytoprotection and $G_2$/M-progression are not only dependent on the cell's DNA repair but also may reflect Ku80's influence on additional cellular processes such as gene expression.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.208-216
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• 2004

Purpose: DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) is a serine/threonine kinase consisting of a 470 kDa catalytic subunit (DNA-PKcs) and a heterodimeric regulatory complex, called Ku, which is composed of 70 kDa(Ku 70) and 86 kDa (Ku 80) proteins. The DNA-PK has been shown to play a pivotal role in rejoining DNA double-strand-breaks (dsb) in mammalian cells. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the level of Ku expression and radiation sensitivity. Methods and Materials: Nine head and neck, cancer cell lines showed various intrinsic radiation sensitivities. Among the nine, AMC-HN-3 cell was the most sensitive for X-ray irradiation and AMC-HN-9 cell was the most resistance. The most sensitive and resistant cell lines were selected and the test sensitivity of radiation and expression of Ku were measured. Radiation sensitivity was obtained by colony forming assay and Ku protein expression using Western blot analysis. Results: Ku80 increased expression by radiation, wheres Ku70 did not. Overexpression of Ku80 protein increased radiation resistance in AMC-HN9 cell line. There was a correlation between Ku8O expression and radiation resistance. Ku80 was shown to play an important role in radiation damage response. Conclusion: Induction of Ku80 expression had an important role in DNA damage repair by radiation. Ku80 expression may be an effective predictive assay of radiosensitivity on head and neck cancer.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.75-81
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• 2007

Sodium salicylate (NaSal), a chemopreventive drug, has been shown to induce apoptosis and cell circle arrest depending on its concentrations in a variety of cancer cells. In A549 cells, low concentration of NaSal (5$\sim$10 mM) induces cell cycle arrest, whereas it induces apoptosis at higher concentration of 20 mM. In the present study, we examined the molecular mechanism for NaSal-induced cell cycle arrest. NaSal induced expression of p53, p21 (Wafl/Cipl), and p27 (Kipl) that play important roles in cell cycle arrest. p53 induction was mediated by its phosphorylation at Ser-15 that could be prevented by the PI3K-related kinase (ATM, ATR and DNA-PK) inhibitors including wortmannin, caffeine and LY294002. In addition, NaSal-induction of p2l (Wafl/Cipl) was detected in P53 (+/+) wild type A549 cells but not in p53 (-/-) mutant H1299 cells, indicating p53-dependent p21 (Wafl/Cipl) induction. In contrast, p27 (Kipl) that is a negative regulate. of cell cycle with p21 (Wafl/Cipl) was observed both in A549 cells and H1299 cells. Thus, 5 mM NaSal appeared to cause cell cycle arrest through inducing the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21 (Wafl/Cipl) via PI3K-related protein kinase-dependent p53 activation as well as by up-regulating p27 (Kipl) independently of p53 in A549 cells.