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ATRX loss promotes tumor growth and impairs nonhomologous end joining DNA repair in glioma

  • Carl Koschmann
  • , Anda Alexandra Calinescu
  • , Felipe J. Nunez
  • , Alan Mackay
  • , Janet Fazal-Salom
  • , Daniel Thomas
  • , Flor Mendez
  • , Neha Kamran
  • , Marta Dzaman
  • , Lakshman Mulpuri
  • , Johnathon Krasinkiewicz
  • , Robert Doherty
  • , Rosemary Lemons
  • , Jaqueline A. Brosnan-Cashman
  • , Youping Li
  • , Soyeon Roh
  • , Lili Zhao
  • , Henry Appelman
  • , David Ferguson
  • , Vera Gorbunova
  • Alan Meeker, Chris Jones, Pedro R. Lowenstein, Maria G. Castro

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Recent work in human glioblastoma (GBM) has documented recurrent mutations in the histone chaperone protein ATRX. We developed an animal model of ATRX-deficient GBM and showed that loss of ATRX reduces median survival and increases genetic instability. Further, analysis of genome-wide data for human gliomas showed that ATRX mutation is associated with increased mutation rate at the single-nucleotide variant (SNV) level. In mouse tumors, ATRX deficiency impairs nonhomologous end joining and increases sensitivity to DNA-damaging agents that induce double-stranded DNA breaks. We propose that ATRX loss results in a genetically unstable tumor, which is more aggressive when left untreated but is more responsive to double-stranded DNA-damaging agents, resulting in improved overall survival.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number328ra28
JournalScience translational medicine
Volume8
Issue number328
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2 2016

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Medicine

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