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Departments of ¹ Pharmacology and Therapeutics and ² Cancer Genetics, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, New York

Requests for reprints: Terry A. Beerman, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Elm and Carlton Streets, Buffalo, NY 14263. Phone: 716-845-3443; Fax: 716-845-1575. E-mail: terry.beerman{at}roswellpark.edu

Genotoxic treatments, such as UV light, camptothecin, and adozelesin, stall DNA replication and subsequently generate DNA strand breaks. Typically, DNA breaks are reflected by an increase in ataxia and Rad-related kinase (ATR)–regulated phosphorylation of H2AX (H2AX) and require replication fork movement. This study examined the potential of the monofunctional DNA alkylating agent hedamycin, a powerful inhibitor of DNA replication, to induce DNA strand breaks, phosphorylated H2AX (H2AX) foci, and chromosome aberrations. Hedamycin treatment of HCT116 carcinoma cells resulted in a rapid induction of DNA strand breaks accompanied by increasing H2AX phosphorylation and focalization. Unlike many other treatments that also stall replication, such as UV, camptothecin, and adozelesin, H2AX formation was not suppressed in ATR-compromised cells but actually increased. Similarly, hedamycin induction of H2AX is not dependent on ataxia telangiectasia mutated or DNA-protein kinase, and pretreatment of cells with the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase–related kinase inhibitor caffeine did not substantially reduce induction of H2AX phosphorylation by hedamycin. Furthermore, the DNA replication inhibitor aphidicolin only modestly depressed hedamycin-induced H2AX formation, indicating that hedamycin-induced DNA double-strand breaks are not dependent on fork progression. In contrast, camptothecin- and adozelesin-induced H2AX was strongly suppressed by aphidicolin. Moreover, after 24 hours following a short-term hedamycin treatment, cells displayed high levels of breaks in interphase nuclear DNA and misjoined chromosomes in metaphase cells. Finally, focalization of a tightly bound form of Ku80 was observed in interphase cells, consistent with the subsequent appearance of chromosomal aberrations via abnormal nonhomologous end joining. Overall, this study has revealed a disparate type of DNA damage response to stalled replication induced by a bulky DNA adduct inducer, hedamycin, that seems not to be highly dependent on ATR or DNA replication.

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³ M.G.J. Hartl (http://www.ucc.ie/ucc/depts/zoology/biomasstox).

⁴ J. Dziegielewski and T.A. Beerman, unpublished results.

Received 2/22/05; revised 5/17/05; accepted 6/ 1/05.