Novel role of heat shock protein (HSP) 90 in regulating ATR-CHK1 DNA damage response pathway in cancer cells

DNA damage caused by environmental mutagens or reactive metabolic byproducts induces DNA damage response (DDR), which regulates cell cycle transit, DNA repair and apoptosis. DDR involves the phosphorylation and activation of Ataxia Telangiectasia Mutated (ATM) and ATM and RAD3-related (ATR) proteins. ATR regulates the firing of the replication forks during S phase, and the repair of damaged replication forks to prevent premature onset of mitosis. ATR phosphorylates and activates CHK1 which phosphorylates and inactivates CDC25, thereby inhibiting CDK1 activation and cell cycle progression. In the present studies, we determined that treatment with an hsp90 inhibitor AUY922, without affecting the mRNA levels, dose-dependently depletes the protein levels of p-ATR (Ser 428), ATR and CHK1 in human breast and cervical cancer cells. Additionally, treatment with the pan-histone deacetylase inhibitor panobinostat (PS), which is known to induce hyperacetylation and inhibition of hsp90 function, also depleted ATR and CHK1 levels in cancer cells. Co-treatment with the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib (BZ) partially reversed AUY922- or PS-mediated depletion of ATR and CHK1 expression, indicating proteasome-mediated degradation of ATR and CHK1. Treatment with either AUY922 or PS markedly inhibited the binding of ATR with hsp90, induced polyubiquitylation of ATR, and decreased the half-life of both ATR and CHK1 proteins. Treatment with AUY922 also abrogated ionizing radiation (IR)-induced cell cycle arrest and increased the amount of DNA damage in the cancer cells following IR. Treatment with AUY922 also inhibited the recruitment of p-ATR, ATR and 53BP1 to the site of DNA damage. In addition, HDAC3 binds to and deacetylates hsp90 in the nucleus. Depletion of HDAC3 by either short hairpin RNA or genetic knockout induced hyperacetylation of nuclear hsp90, resulting in the inhibition of chaperone association of ATR with hsp90 and depletion of ATR. These findings demonstrate that 1) ATR is chaperoned by hsp90, 2) Inhibition of chaperone function of hsp90 results in proteasomal degradation of ATR and inhibition of DDR, 3) pan-HDAC inhibitors abrogate ATR-CHK1 cell cycle checkpoint pathway by modulating chaperone activity of hsp90 and 4) HDAC3 plays a critical role in the regulation of DNA damage response by stabilizing the chaperone activity of nuclear hsp90.;INDEX WORDS: Hsp90, ATR, CHK1, DNA Damage Response, HDAC3.