ATR inhibition controls aggressive prostate tumors deficient in Y-linked histone demethylase KDM5D

Kazumasa Komura, Yuki Yoshikawa, Teppei Shimamura, Goutam Chakraborty, Travis A. Gerke, Kunihiko Hinohara, Kalyani Chadalavada, Seong Ho Jeong, Joshua Armenia, Shin-Yi Du, Ying Z. Mazzu, Kohei Taniguchi, Naokazu Ibuki, Clifford A. Meyer, Gouri J. Nanjangud, Teruo Inamoto, Gwo-Shu Mary Lee, Lorelei A. Mucci, Haruhito Azuma, Christopher J. Sweeney, Philip W. Kantoff

Abstract

Epigenetic modifications control cancer development and clonal evolution in various cancer types. Here, we show that loss of the male-specific histone demethylase lysine-specific demethylase 5D (KDM5D) encoded on the Y chromosome epigenetically modifies histone methylation marks and alters gene expression, resulting in aggressive prostate cancer. Fluorescent in situ hybridization demonstrated that segmental or total deletion of the Y chromosome in prostate cancer cells is one of the causes of decreased KDM5D mRNA expression. The result of ChIP-sequencing analysis revealed that KDM5D preferably binds to promoter regions with coenrichment of the motifs of crucial transcription factors that regulate the cell cycle. Loss of KDM5D expression with dysregulated H3K4me3 transcriptional marks was associated with acceleration of the cell cycle and mitotic entry, leading to increased DNA-replication stress. Analysis of multiple clinical data sets reproducibly showed that loss of expression of KDM5D confers a poorer prognosis. Notably, we also found stress-induced DNA damage on the serine/threonine protein kinase ATR with loss of KDM5D. In KDM5D-deficient cells, blocking ATR activity with an ATR inhibitor enhanced DNA damage, which led to subsequent apoptosis. These data start to elucidate the biological characteristics resulting from loss of KDM5D and also provide clues for a potential novel therapeutic approach for this subset of aggressive prostate cancer.

Published In The Journal Clinical Investigation
Date Jun 4, 2018
DOI 10.1172/JCI96769
Links

Citation

Komura K, Yoshikawa Y, Shimamura T, Chakraborty G, Gerke TA, Hinohara K, Chadalavada K, Jeong SH, Armenia J, Du S, Mazzu YZ, Taniguchi K, Ibuki N, Meyer CA, Nanjangud G, Inamoto T, Lee GM, Mucci L, Azuma H, Sweeney CJ, Kantoff P. Synthetic lethality by ATR inhibition in aggressive prostate cancer deficient in male specific histone demethylase KDM5D. J Clin Investig 2018; DOI: 10.1172/JCI96769.