DNA-dependent protein kinase, catalytic subunit, also known as DNA-PKcs, is an
enzyme that in humans is encoded by the
gene designated as PRKDC or XRCC7.[5] DNA-PKcs belongs to the
phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-related kinase protein family. The DNA-Pkcs protein is a serine/threonine protein kinase consisting of a single polypeptide chain of 4,128 amino acids.[6][7]
Function
DNA-PKcs is the catalytic subunit of a nuclear DNA-dependent
serine/threonine protein kinase called DNA-PK. The second component is the autoimmune antigen
Ku. On its own, DNA-PKcs is inactive and relies on Ku to direct it to DNA ends and trigger its kinase activity.[8] DNA-PKcs is required for the
non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) pathway of
DNA repair, which rejoins double-strand breaks. It is also required for
V(D)J recombination, a process that utilizes NHEJ to promote immune system diversity.
Many proteins have been identified as substrates for the kinase activity of DNA-PK. Autophosphorylation of DNA-PKcs appears to play a key role in NHEJ and is thought to induce a conformational change that allows end processing enzymes to access the ends of the double-strand break.[9] DNA-PK also cooperates with
ATR and
ATM to
phosphorylate proteins involved in the
DNA damage checkpoint.
Disease
DNA-PKcs knockout mice have
severe combined immunodeficiency due to their V(D)J recombination defect. Natural analogs of this knockout happen in mice, horses and dogs, also causing SCID.[10] Human SCID usually have other causes, but two cases related to mutations in this gene are also known.[11]
Apoptosis
DNA-PKcs activates
p53 to regulate
apoptosis.[12] In response to
ionizing radiation, DNA-PKcs can serve as an upstream effector for p53 protein activation, thus linking
DNA damage to apoptosis.[12] Both
Repair of DNA damages and
apoptosis are catalytic activities required for maintaining integrity of the human
genome. Cells that have insufficient DNA repair capability tend to accumulate DNA damages, and when such cells are additionally defective in apoptosis they tend to survive even though excessive DNA damages are present.[13] The replication of DNA in such deficient cells can generate
mutations and such mutations may cause cancer. Thus DNA-PKcs appears to have two functions related to the prevention of cancer, where the first function is to participate in the repair of DNA double-strand breaks by the NHEJ repair pathway and the second function is to induce apoptosis if the level of such DNA breaks exceed the cell’s repair capability[13]
Cancer
DNA damage appears to be the primary underlying cause of cancer,[14] and deficiencies in DNA repair genes likely underlie many forms of cancer.[15][16] If DNA repair is deficient, DNA damage tends to accumulate. Such excess DNA damage may increase
mutations due to error-prone
translesion synthesis. Excess DNA damage may also increase
epigenetic alterations due to errors during DNA repair.[17][18] Such mutations and epigenetic alterations may give rise to
cancer.
PRKDC (DNA-PKcs) mutations were found in 3 out of 10 of endometriosis-associated ovarian cancers, as well as in the
field defects from which they arose.[19] They were also found in 10% of breast and pancreatic cancers.[20]
Reductions in expression of DNA repair genes (usually caused by epigenetic alterations) are very common in cancers, and are ordinarily even more frequent than mutational defects in DNA repair genes in cancers.[citation needed] DNA-PKcs expression was reduced by 23% to 57% in six cancers as indicated in the table.
Frequency of reduced expression of DNA-PKcs in sporadic cancers
It is not clear what causes reduced expression of DNA-PKcs in cancers.
MicroRNA-101 targets DNA-PKcs via binding to the
3'- UTR of DNA-PKcs mRNA and efficiently reduces protein levels of DNA-PKcs.[27] But miR-101 is more often decreased in cancers, rather than increased.[28][29]
HMGA2 protein could also have an effect on DNA-PKcs. HMGA2 delays the release of DNA-PKcs from sites of double-strand breaks, interfering with DNA repair by
non-homologous end joining and causing chromosomal aberrations.[30] The let-7a microRNA normally represses the HMGA2 gene.[31][32] In normal adult tissues, almost no HMGA2 protein is present. In many cancers, let-7 microRNA is repressed. As an example, in breast cancers the promoter region controlling let-7a-3/let-7b microRNA is frequently repressed by hypermethylation.[33] Epigenetic reduction or absence of let-7a microRNA allows high expression of the HMGA2 protein and this would lead to defective expression of DNA-PKcs.
DNA-PKcs can be up-regulated by stressful conditions such as in Helicobacter pylori-associated gastritis.[34] After ionizing radiation DNA-PKcs was increased in the surviving cells of oral squamous cell carcinoma tissues.[35]
The
ATM protein is important in
homologous recombinational repair (HRR) of DNA double strand breaks. When cancer cells are deficient in ATM the cells are "addicted" to DNA-PKcs, important in the alternative DNA repair pathway for double-strand breaks,
non-homologous end joining (NHEJ).[36] That is, in ATM-mutant cells, an inhibitor of DNA-PKcs causes high levels of
apoptotic cell death. In ATM mutant cells, additional loss of DNA-PKcs leaves the cells without either major pathway (HRR and NHEJ) for repair of DNA double-strand breaks.
Elevated DNA-PKcs expression is found in a large fraction (40% to 90%) of some cancers (the remaining fraction of cancers often has reduced or absent expression of DNA-PKcs). The elevation of DNA-PKcs is thought to reflect the induction of a compensatory DNA repair capability, due to the genome instability in these cancers.[37] (As indicated in the article
Genome instability, such genome instability may be due to deficiencies in other DNA repair genes present in the cancers.) Elevated DNA-PKcs is thought to be "beneficial to the tumor cells",[37] though it would be at the expense of the patient. As indicated in a table listing 12 types of cancer reported in 20 publications,[37] the fraction of cancers with over-expression of DNA-PKcs is often associated with an advanced stage of the cancer and shorter survival time for the patient. However, the table also indicates that for some cancers, the fraction of cancers with reduced or absent DNA-PKcs is also associated with advanced stage and poor patient survival.
Aging
Non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) is the principal DNA repair process used by mammalian
somatic cells to cope with double-strand breaks that continually occur in the genome. DNA-PKcs is one of the key components of the NHEJ machinery. DNA-PKcs deficient mice have a shorter lifespan and show an earlier onset of numerous aging related pathologies than corresponding wild-type littermates.[38][39] These findings suggest that failure to efficiently repair DNA double-strand breaks results in premature aging, consistent with the
DNA damage theory of aging. (See also Bernstein et al.[40])
^
abWang S, Guo M, Ouyang H, Li X, Cordon-Cardo C, Kurimasa A, Chen DJ, Fuks Z, Ling CC, Li GC. The catalytic subunit of DNA-dependent protein kinase selectively regulates p53-dependent apoptosis but not cell-cycle arrest. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2000 Feb 15;97(4):1584-8. doi: 10.1073/pnas.97.4.1584. PMID 10677503; PMCID: PMC26478
^
abBernstein C, Bernstein H, Payne CM, Garewal H. DNA repair/pro-apoptotic dual-role proteins in five major DNA repair pathways: fail-safe protection against carcinogenesis. Mutat Res. 2002 Jun;511(2):145-78. doi: 10.1016/s1383-5742(02)00009-1. PMID 12052432
^Dietlein F, Reinhardt HC (December 2014). "Molecular pathways: exploiting tumor-specific molecular defects in DNA repair pathways for precision cancer therapy". Clinical Cancer Research. 20 (23): 5882–5887.
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^Söderlund Leifler K, Queseth S, Fornander T, Askmalm MS (December 2010). "Low expression of Ku70/80, but high expression of DNA-PKcs, predict good response to radiotherapy in early breast cancer". International Journal of Oncology. 37 (6): 1547–1554.
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^Bouchaert P, Guerif S, Debiais C, Irani J, Fromont G (December 2012). "DNA-PKcs expression predicts response to radiotherapy in prostate cancer". International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics. 84 (5): 1179–1185.
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^Zhuang L, Yu SY, Huang XY, Cao Y, Xiong HH (July 2007). "[Potentials of DNA-PKcs, Ku80, and ATM in enhancing radiosensitivity of cervical carcinoma cells]". AI Zheng = Aizheng = Chinese Journal of Cancer (in Chinese). 26 (7): 724–729.
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^Lee SW, Cho KJ, Park JH, Kim SY, Nam SY, Lee BJ, et al. (August 2005). "Expressions of Ku70 and DNA-PKcs as prognostic indicators of local control in nasopharyngeal carcinoma". International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics. 62 (5): 1451–1457.
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^Shintani S, Mihara M, Li C, Nakahara Y, Hino S, Nakashiro K, Hamakawa H (October 2003). "Up-regulation of DNA-dependent protein kinase correlates with radiation resistance in oral squamous cell carcinoma". Cancer Science. 94 (10): 894–900.
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^Riabinska A, Daheim M, Herter-Sprie GS, Winkler J, Fritz C, Hallek M, et al. (June 2013). "Therapeutic targeting of a robust non-oncogene addiction to PRKDC in ATM-defective tumors". Science Translational Medicine. 5 (189): 189ra78.
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^Matheos D, Ruiz MT, Price GB, Zannis-Hadjopoulos M (October 2002). "Ku antigen, an origin-specific binding protein that associates with replication proteins, is required for mammalian DNA replication". Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Gene Structure and Expression. 1578 (1–3): 59–72.
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