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Purpose
As α-emitters for radiopharmaceutical therapies are administered systemically by intravenous injection, blood will be irradiated by α-particles that induce clustered DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). Here, we investigated the induction and repair of DSB damage in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) as a function of the absorbed dose to the blood following internal ex vivo irradiation with [\(^{223}\)Ra]RaCl2.
Methods
Blood samples of ten volunteers were irradiated by adding [\(^{223}\)Ra]RaCl2 solution with different activity concentrations resulting in absorbed doses to the blood of 3 mGy, 25 mGy, 50 mGy and 100 mGy. PBMCs were isolated, divided in three parts and either fixed directly (d-samples) or after 4 h or 24 h culture. After immunostaining, the induced γ-H2AX α-tracks were counted. The time-dependent decrease in α-track frequency was described with a model assuming a repair rate R and a fraction of non-repairable damage Q.
Results
For 25 mGy, 50 mGy and 100 mGy, the numbers of α-tracks were significantly increased compared to baseline at all time points. Compared to the corresponding d-samples, the α-track frequency decreased significantly after 4 h and after 24 h. The repair rates R were (0.24 ± 0.05) h−1 for 25 mGy, (0.16 ± 0.04) h−1 for 50 mGy and (0.13 ± 0.02) h−1 for 100 mGy, suggesting faster repair at lower absorbed doses, while Q-values were similar.
Conclusion
The results obtained suggest that induction and repair of the DSB damage depend on the absorbed dose to the blood. Repair rates were similar to what has been observed for irradiation with low linear energy transfer.
Background
Most tumor cells show aberrantly activated Akt which leads to increased cell survival and resistance to cancer radiotherapy. Therefore, targeting Akt can be a promising strategy for radiosensitization. Here, we explore the impact of the Akt inhibitor MK-2206 alone and in combination with the dual PI3K and mTOR inhibitor PI-103 on the radiation sensitivity of glioblastoma cells. In addition, we examine migration of drug-treated cells.
Methods
Using single-cell tracking and wound healing migration tests, colony-forming assay, Western blotting, flow cytometry and electrorotation we examined the effects of MK-2206 and PI-103 and/or irradiation on the migration, radiation sensitivity, expression of several marker proteins, DNA damage, cell cycle progression and the plasma membrane properties in two glioblastoma (DK-MG and SNB19) cell lines, previously shown to differ markedly in their migratory behavior and response to PI3K/mTOR inhibition.
Results
We found that MK-2206 strongly reduces the migration of DK-MG but only moderately reduces the migration of SNB19 cells. Surprisingly, MK-2206 did not cause radiosensitization, but even increased colony-forming ability after irradiation. Moreover, MK-2206 did not enhance the radiosensitizing effect of PI-103. The results appear to contradict the strong depletion of p-Akt in MK-2206-treated cells. Possible reasons for the radioresistance of MK-2206-treated cells could be unaltered or in case of SNB19 cells even increased levels of p-mTOR and p-S6, as compared to the reduced expression of these proteins in PI-103-treated samples. We also found that MK-2206 did not enhance IR-induced DNA damage, neither did it cause cell cycle distortion, nor apoptosis nor excessive autophagy.
Conclusions
Our study provides proof that MK-2206 can effectively inhibit the expression of Akt in two glioblastoma cell lines. However, due to an aberrant activation of mTOR in response to Akt inhibition in PTEN mutated cells, the therapeutic window needs to be carefully defined, or a combination of Akt and mTOR inhibitors should be considered.
Radioresistance is an important cause of head and neck cancer therapy failure. Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NP) mediate tumor-selective toxic effects. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential for radiosensitization of ZnO-NP. The dose-dependent cytotoxicity of ZnO-NP\(_{20 nm}\) and ZnO-NP\(_{100 nm}\) was investigated in FaDu and primary fibroblasts (FB) by an MTT assay. The clonogenic survival assay was used to evaluate the effects of ZnO-NP alone and in combination with irradiation on FB and FaDu. A formamidopyrimidine-DNA glycosylase (FPG)-modified single-cell microgel electrophoresis (comet) assay was applied to detect oxidative DNA damage in FB as a function of ZnO-NP and irradiation exposure. A significantly increased cytotoxicity after FaDu exposure to ZnO-NP\(_{20 nm}\) or ZnO-NP\(_{100 nm}\) was observed in a concentration of 10 µg/mL or 1 µg/mL respectively in 30 µg/mL of ZnO-NP\(_{20 nm}\) or 20 µg/mL of ZnO-NP\(_{100 nm}\) in FB. The addition of 1, 5, or 10 µg/mL ZnO-NP\(_{20 nm}\) or ZnO-NP\(_{100 nm}\) significantly reduced the clonogenic survival of FaDu after irradiation. The sub-cytotoxic dosage of ZnO-NP\(_{100 nm}\) increased the oxidative DNA damage compared to the irradiated control. This effect was not significant for ZnO-NP\(_{20 nm}\). ZnO-NP showed radiosensitizing properties in the sub-cytotoxic dosage. At least for the ZnO-NP\(_{100 nm}\), an increased level of oxidative stress is a possible mechanism of the radiosensitizing effect.