2. Academic Validation
  3. TRIP13 protects pancreatic cancer cells against intrinsic and therapy-induced DNA replication stress

TRIP13 protects pancreatic cancer cells against intrinsic and therapy-induced DNA replication stress

  • bioRxiv. 2025 Jan 27:2025.01.26.634889. doi: 10.1101/2025.01.26.634889.
Jay R Anand 1,  Gaith N Droby 2,  Sayali Joseph 1,  Urvi Patel 1,  Xingyuan Zhang 1,  Jeffrey A Klomp 3 4,  Channing J Der 3 4,  Jeremy E Purvis 5 6,  Samuel C Wolff 5 6,  Jessica Bowser 1 3,  Cyrus Vaziri 1 2 3
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
  • 2 Curriculum in Genetics and Molecular Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
  • 3 Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
  • 4 Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
  • 5 Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
  • 6 Computational Medicine Program, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
PMID: 39975297 DOI: 10.1101/2025.01.26.634889
Abstract

Oncogene activation in normal untransformed cells induces DNA replication stress and creates a dependency on DNA Damage Response (DDR) mechanisms for cell survival. Different oncogenic stimuli signal via distinct mechanisms in every Cancer setting. The DDR is also pathologically re-programmed and deployed in diverse ways in different cancers. Because mutant KRAS is the driver oncogene in 90% of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinomas (PDAC), here we have investigated DDR mechanisms by which KRAS-induced DNA replication stress is tolerated in normal human pancreatic epithelial cells (HPNE). Using a candidate screening approach, we identify TRIP13 as a KRASG12V-induced mRNA that is also expressed at high levels in PDAC relative to normal tissues. Using genetic and pharmacological tools, we show that TRIP13 is necessary to sustain ongoing DNA synthesis and viability specifically in KRASG12V-expressing cells. TRIP13 promotes survival of KRASG12V-expressing HPNE cells in a Homologous Recombination (HR)-dependent manner. KRASG12V-expressing HPNE cells lacking TRIP13 acquire hallmark HR-deficiency (HRD) phenotypes including sensitivity to inhibitors of Trans-Lesion Synthesis (TLS) and Poly-ADP Ribose Polymerase (PARP). Established PDAC cell lines are also sensitized to intrinsic DNA damage and therapy-induced genotoxicity following TRIP13-depletion. Taken together our results expose TRIP13 as an attractive new and therapeutically-tractable vulnerability of KRAS-mutant PDAC.

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