Altered radiation recovery by DNA double-strand break inducers

Identical biphasic time-dependent profiles of cell survival were obtained in V79 fibroblasts exposed to a split-dose protocol consisting of a fixed dose of γ-rays followed, at a variable time interval, either by a second exposure to radiation, or by contact with an equi-toxic amount of antitumor drugs acting to produce DNA double-strand breaks. The drugs used in this context were the neocarcinostatin antibiotic (NCS), which preferentially cleaves DNA in the linker region of nucleosomes, and etoposide (VP), whose major target is topoisomerase IIα, a nuclear matrix fraction-linked enzyme acting to relieve topological constraints in replicating DNA and mitotic chromosomes. Radiation-induced DNA strand break rejoining was not inhibited by either drug. The initial number of DNA strand breaks was consistently found o depend only on the radiation dose and/or on the drug concentration. However, the cytotoxicity they induced in combined treatment was determined in essence by the time elapsed after the first radiation exposure. While resistance to NCS and VP in non-irradiated, synchronized cells peaks in G2 phase of the cell cycle, enhanced drug susceptibility was observed within the radiation-induced G2 block. Concomitant exposure to drug and radiation also resulted in supra-additive cytotoxic interaction. Our data suggest that impaired split-dose radiation recovery dose not proceed from inhibition of DNA damage repair, but rather from additional double-strand breaks produced by drug or radiation during the time cells are in the dynamic process of DNA repair; a time range characterized by a dynamic DNA fragility. (authors)