Regulation of DNA damage repair and lipid uptake by CX3CR1 in epithelial ovarian carcinoma

• Main Authors: Jia Xie, Hilal Gurler Main, Joelle D. Sacks, Goda G. Muralidhar, Maria V. Barbolina
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group 2018-05-01
• Series: Oncogenesis
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41389-018-0046-6

Abstract Failure of currently used cytotoxic chemotherapy is one of the main reasons behind high mortality from metastatic high grade serous ovarian carcinoma. We found that high expression of a receptor for fractalkine (CX3CR1) significantly correlated with shorter survival of patients with serous ovarian carcinoma treated with cytotoxic DNA damage chemotherapies, and reduction of CX3CR1 expression resulted in sensitization to several DNA damaging modalities, including x-ray radiation and cisplatin. Here, we show that CX3CR1 plays a role in double-strand DNA break response and repair by regulating expression of RAD50 by a MYC-dependent mechanism. We demonstrate that downregulation of CX3CR1 alone and in a combination with irradiation affects peritoneal metastasis in an organ-specific manner; we show that CX3CR1 regulates lipid uptake which could control omental metastasis. This study identifies CX3CR1 as a novel potential target for sensitization of ovarian carcinoma to DNA damage therapies and reduction of peritoneal carcinomatosis.