2. Academic Validation
  3. Tumor acidosis-induced DNA damage response and tetraploidy enhance sensitivity to ATM and ATR inhibitors

Tumor acidosis-induced DNA damage response and tetraploidy enhance sensitivity to ATM and ATR inhibitors

  • EMBO Rep. 2024 Mar;25(3):1469-1489. doi: 10.1038/s44319-024-00089-7.
Léo Aubert 1,  Estelle Bastien 2,  Ophélie Renoult 2,  Céline Guilbaud 2,  Kübra Özkan 2,  Davide Brusa 3,  Caroline Bouzin 4,  Elena Richiardone 2,  Corentin Richard 5,  Romain Boidot 5,  Daniel Léonard 6,  Cyril Corbet 2,  Olivier Feron 7 8
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Pole of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (FATH), Institut de Recherche Expérimentale et Clinique (IREC), UCLouvain, B-1200, Brussels, Belgium. leo.aubert@uclouvain.be.
  • 2 Pole of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (FATH), Institut de Recherche Expérimentale et Clinique (IREC), UCLouvain, B-1200, Brussels, Belgium.
  • 3 CytoFlux-Flow Cytometry and Cell Sorting Platform, Institut de Recherche Expérimentale et Clinique (IREC), UCLouvain, B-1200, Brussels, Belgium.
  • 4 Imaging Platform 2IP, Institut de Recherche Expérimentale et Clinique (IREC), UCLouvain, B-1200, Brussels, Belgium.
  • 5 Unit of Molecular Biology, Department of Biology and Pathology of Tumors, Georges‑François Leclerc Cancer Center‑UNICANCER, 21079, Dijon, France.
  • 6 Institut Roi Albert II, Department of Digestive Surgery, Cliniques Universitaires St-Luc, and Institut de Recherche Expérimentale et Clinique (IREC), UCLouvain, B-1200, Brussels, Belgium.
  • 7 Pole of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (FATH), Institut de Recherche Expérimentale et Clinique (IREC), UCLouvain, B-1200, Brussels, Belgium. olivier.feron@uclouvain.be.
  • 8 Walloon Excellence in Life Sciences and Biotechnology (WELBIO) Department, WEL Research Institute, B-1300, Wavre, Belgium. olivier.feron@uclouvain.be.
PMID: 38366255 DOI: 10.1038/s44319-024-00089-7
Abstract

Tumor acidosis is associated with increased invasiveness and drug resistance. Here, we take an unbiased approach to identify vulnerabilities of acid-exposed Cancer cells by combining pH-dependent flow cytometry cell sorting from 3D colorectal tumor spheroids and transcriptomic profiling. Besides metabolic rewiring, we identify an increase in tetraploid cell frequency and DNA damage response as consistent hallmarks of acid-exposed Cancer cells, supported by the activation of ATM and ATR signaling pathways. We find that regardless of the cell replication error status, both ATM and ATR inhibitors exert preferential growth inhibitory effects on acid-exposed Cancer cells. The efficacy of a combination of these drugs with 5-FU is further documented in 3D spheroids as well as in patient-derived colorectal tumor organoids. These data position tumor acidosis as a revelator of the therapeutic potential of DNA repair blockers and as an attractive clinical biomarker to predict the response to a combination with chemotherapy.

Keywords

3D Spheroids; ATM; DNA Damage Response; Organoids; Tumor Acidosis.

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