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PTEN and DNA-PK determine sensitivity and recovery in response to WEE1 inhibition in human breast cancer.

Andrä BrunnerAldwin Suryo RahmantoHenrik JohanssonMarcela FrancoJohanna ViiliäinenMohiuddin GaziOliver FringsErik FredlundCharles SpruckJanne LehtiöJuha K RantalaLars-Gunnar LarssonOlle Sangfelt
Published in: eLife (2020)
Inhibition of WEE1 kinase by AZD1775 has shown promising results in clinical cancer trials, but markers predicting AZD1775 response are lacking. Here we analysed AZD1775 response in a panel of human breast cancer (BC) cell lines by global proteome/transcriptome profiling and identified two groups of basal-like BC (BLBCs): 'PTEN low' BLBCs were highly sensitive to AZD1775 and failed to recover following removal of AZD1775, while 'PTEN high' BLBCs recovered. AZD1775 induced phosphorylation of DNA-PK, protecting cells from replication-associated DNA damage and promoting cellular recovery. Deletion of DNA-PK or PTEN, or inhibition of DNA-PK sensitized recovering BLBCs to AZD1775 by abrogating replication arrest, allowing replication despite DNA damage. This was linked to reduced CHK1 activation, increased cyclin E levels and apoptosis. In conclusion, we identified PTEN and DNA-PK as essential regulators of replication checkpoint arrest in response to AZD1775 and defined PTEN as a promising biomarker for efficient WEE1 cancer therapy.
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