Targeting the epigenetics of the DNA damage response in breast cancer

Cancer is as much an epigenetic disease as it is a genetic disease, and epigenetic alterations in cancer often serve as potent surrogates for genetic mutations. Because the epigenetic factors involved in the DNA damage response are regulated by multiple elements, therapies to target specific components of the epigenetic machinery can be inefficient. In contrast, therapies aimed at inhibiting the methionine cycle can indirectly inhibit both DNA and protein methylation, and the wide variety of genes and pathways that are affected by these methylations make this global strategy very attractive. In the present study, we propose an adjuvant therapy that targets the epigenetics of the DNA damage response in breast cancer cells and that results in efficient apoptosis and a reduction in distant metastases in vivo. We observed that a combined therapy designed to uncouple adenosine metabolism using dipyridamole in the presence of a new synthetic antifolate, 3-O-(3,4,5-trimethoxybenzoyl)-(-)-catechin, simultaneously and efficiently blocked both the folic cycle and the methionine cycle in breast cancer cells and sensitized these cells to radiotherapy. The treatment impeded the recruitment of 53BP1 and BRCA1 to the chromatin regions flanking DNA double-strand breaks and thereby avoided the DNA damage responses in breast cancer cells that were exposed to ionizing radiation. In addition, this hypomethylating therapy was also efficient in reducing the self-renewal capability of breast cancer-initiating cells and induced reversion of mesenchymal phenotypes in breast cancer cells.