4.6 Article

Cooperative Blockade of CK2 and ATM Kinases Drives Apoptosis in VHL-Deficient Renal Carcinoma Cells through ROS Overproduction

Journal

CANCERS
Volume 13, Issue 3, Pages -

Publisher

MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/cancers13030576

Keywords

ccRCC; ATM; CK2; kinase inhibitor; HIF-2α ROS pathway; NOX4; apoptosis; tumor tissue slices

Categories

Funding

  1. INSERM, CEA
  2. Ligue Nationale contre le Cancer
  3. Ligue Comite de l'Isere, University Grenoble Alpes
  4. Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Grenoble-Alpes (CHUGA)
  5. Groupement des Entreprises Francaises dans la LUtte contre le Cancer (GEFLUC)
  6. Grenoble Alliance for Integrated Structural & Cell Biology (GRAL)
  7. Association Francaise d'Urologie (AFU)
  8. Labex GRAL within the University Grenoble Alpes graduate school (Ecoles Universitaires de Recherche) CBH-EUR-GS [ANR-17-EURE-0003]

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Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is a significant malignancy globally, with poor outcomes when metastatic. Protein kinases play a crucial role in cancer progression, and targeting CK2 and ATM kinases can induce synthetic lethality in RCC cells. The study highlights the potential of targeting CK2 and ATM kinases in VHL-deficient renal carcinoma cells to trigger ROS-dependent apoptosis and improve patient care in metastatic RCC.
Simple Summary Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the eighth leading malignancy in the world, accounting for 4% of all cancers with poor outcome when metastatic. Protein kinases are highly druggable proteins, which are often aberrantly activated in cancers. The aim of our study was to identify candidate targets for metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma therapy, using chemo-genomic-based high-throughput screening. We found that the combined inhibition of the CK2 and ATM kinases in renal tumor cells and patient-derived tumor samples induces synthetic lethality. Mechanistic investigations unveil that this drug combination triggers apoptosis through HIF-2 alpha-(Hypoxic inducible factor HIF-2 alpha) dependent reactive oxygen species (ROS) overproduction, giving a new option for patient care in metastatic RCC. Kinase-targeted agents demonstrate antitumor activity in advanced metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), which remains largely incurable. Integration of genomic approaches through small-molecules and genetically based high-throughput screening holds the promise of improved discovery of candidate targets for cancer therapy. The 786-O cell line represents a model for most ccRCC that have a loss of functional pVHL (von Hippel-Lindau). A multiplexed assay was used to study the cellular fitness of a panel of engineered ccRCC isogenic 786-O VHL- cell lines in response to a collection of targeted cancer therapeutics including kinase inhibitors, allowing the interrogation of over 2880 drug-gene pairs. Among diverse patterns of drug sensitivities, investigation of the mechanistic effect of one selected drug combination on tumor spheroids and ex vivo renal tumor slice cultures showed that VHL-defective ccRCC cells were more vulnerable to the combined inhibition of the CK2 and ATM kinases than wild-type VHL cells. Importantly, we found that HIF-2 alpha acts as a key mediator that potentiates the response to combined CK2/ATM inhibition by triggering ROS-dependent apoptosis. Importantly, our findings reveal a selective killing of VHL-deficient renal carcinoma cells and provide a rationale for a mechanism-based use of combined CK2/ATM inhibitors for improved patient care in metastatic VHL-ccRCC.

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