ATR is an attractive target in
cancer therapy because it signals replication stress and DNA lesions for repair and to S/G2 checkpoints.
Cancer-specific defects in the DNA damage response (DDR) may render
cancer cells vulnerable to ATR inhibition alone. We determined the cytotoxicity of the ATR inhibitor
VE-821 in isogenically matched cells with DDR imbalance. Cell cycle arrest, DNA damage accumulation and repair were determined following
VE-821 exposure.Defects in homologous recombination repair (HRR: ATM, BRCA2 and XRCC3) and base excision repair (BER: XRCC1) conferred sensitivity to
VE-821. Surprisingly, the loss of different components of the trimeric non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ)
protein DNA-PK had opposing effects. Loss of the
DNA-binding component, Ku80, caused
hypersensitivity to
VE-821, but loss of its partner catalytic subunit,
DNA-
PKcs, did not. Unexpectedly,
VE-821 was particularly cytotoxic to human and hamster cells expressing high levels of
DNA-
PKcs. High
DNA-
PKcs was associated with replicative stress and activation of the DDR.
VE-821 suppressed HRR, determined by RAD51 focus formation, to a greater extent in cells with high
DNA-
PKcs.Defects in HRR and BER and high
DNA-
PKcs expression, that are common in
cancer, confer sensitivity to ATR inhibitor monotherapy and may be developed as predictive
biomarkers for personalised medicine.