Fig. 4. ATRi/gem-induced DDR activation persists in the absence of ATM function due to DNA-PK activity.
a Immunoblot analysis of MIA PaCa-2 cells. Cells that received 6 Gy of γ-irradiation (IR) were harvested 30 min post-IR. All other samples were harvested after 24 h of drug exposure. ATRi + GEM denotes 2 µM AZD6738 and 30 nM gemcitabine. ATMi is AZD0156 and was either applied concurrently with ATRi/gem or administered 1 h prior to IR in the case of the two IR samples. b Immunoblot analysis of MIA PaCa-2 cells. Cells were harvested after 24 h of drug exposure. ATRi is AZD6738, ATMi is AZD0156, DNA-PKi is AZD7648. c Immunoblot analysis of HPAF-II cells. Cells were harvested after 24 h of drug exposure. d Immunoblot analysis of MIA PaCa-2 WT and MIA PaCa-2 ATM-KO cells (clone B7). Cells were harvested after 24 h of drug exposure. e Cells were treated with increasing concentrations of ATRi (AZD6738) and DNA-PKi (AZD7648) for 72 h, and growth was assessed by SRB assay. Top = growth as percentage of solvent control. Bottom = Combenefit synergy score (Loewe). Data, mean ± SD, n = 3. For matrices of all cell lines, see Fig. S3A. f Synergy comparison of the AZD6738 and AZD0156 combination (ATRi + ATMi, see Fig. S1) vs the AZD6738 and AZD7648 combination (ATRi + DNAPKi, Fig. S3A). Cells were treated with increasing concentrations for 72 h and growth as percentage of solvent control was assessed by SRB assay. Combenefit software was used to calculate the sum of synergy and antagonism across the dose ranges tested. g The effect of DNA-PK inhibition on AZD6783 and gemcitabine sensitivity in MIA PaCa-2. Values denote growth as percentage of solvent control (as assessed by SRB assay), mean ± SD, n = 3. h Visualisation of how much more effect ATM inhibition has compared to DNA-PK inhibition on the growth of ATRi/gem-treated MIAPaCa-2. Left = the %Control values of the MIA PaCa-2 + 1 µM DNA-PKi matrix from Fig. 4g were subtracted from those of the MIA PaCa-2 + DMSO matrix from Fig. 4g. Right = the %Control values of the MIA PaCa-2 + 30 nM ATMi matrix from Fig. 3a were subtracted from those of the MIA PaCa-2 + DMSO matrix from Fig. 3a.