Articolo in rivista, 2003,

The effect of O6-alkylguanine-DNA alkyltransferase and mismatch repair activities on the sensitivity of human melanoma cells

Pepponi R., Marra G., Fuggetta M.P., Falcinelli S., Pagani E., Bonmassar E., Jiricny J., D'Atri S.

The prognosis of advanced melanoma is generally poor, because this tumor commonly exhibits intrinsic or acquired resistance to chemotherapy. In an attempt to identify the underlying causes of this resistance, we studied the roles played by the DNA repair enzyme O(6)-alkylguanine-DNA alkyltransferase (OGAT) and the mismatch repair (MMR) system in the sensitivity of melanoma cells to temozolomide (TMZ), 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea (BCNU)cis-diamminedichloroplatinum(II)(CDDP). To this end, OGAT levels and MMR efficiency of extracts of nine melanoma cell lines and selected clones derived from four of these lines were determined and correlated with the sensitivity of the respective cells to these drugs. The effectiveness of O(6)-benzylguanine (BG), a specific OGAT inhibitor, in potentiating TMZ- or BCNU-mediated cytotoxicity was also evaluated. Our results demonstrate that MMR efficiency and OGAT levels strongly affect melanoma cell sensitivity to TMZ. In MMR-proficient cells, a direct correlation between OGAT levels and TMZ IC(50) values was found. When OGAT activity was inhibited with BG, the sensitivity of these cells to TMZ increased and was then dictated largely by their MMR efficiency. MMR-deficient cells were highly resistant to the drug irrespective of their OGAT levels. Although OGAT activity and MMR status seemed to be the major determinants of melanoma sensitivity to TMZ, this was not the case for BCNU and CDDP; resistance to the latter drugs clearly involves processes other than the two DNA repair pathways analyzed in this study.

Keywords

CNR authors

Fuggetta Maria Pia

CNR institutes

INMM – Istituto di neurobiologia e medicina molecolare

ID: 4539

Year: 2003

Type: Articolo in rivista

Creation: 2009-06-16 00:00:00.000

Last update: 2009-06-16 00:00:00.000

External links

OAI-PMH: Dublin Core

OAI-PMH: Mods

OAI-PMH: RDF

External IDs

CNR OAI-PMH: oai:it.cnr:prodotti:4539