Phosphoproteomic characterization of DNA damage response in melanoma cells following MEK/PI3K dual inhibition

Significance Growing evidence suggests that successful intervention in many human cancers will require combinations of therapeutic agents. Critical to this effort will be a detailed understanding of the crosstalk between signaling networks that modulate proliferation, cell death, drug sensitivity, and acquired resistance. Here we investigated DNA-damage signaling elicited by small-molecule inhibitors against MAP/ERK kinase (MEK) and PI3K in melanoma cells. This work, performed using cutting-edge mass spectrometry proteomics, uncovered a burst of signaling among proteins in the DNA-damage pathway upon initiation of the cell-death program by agents targeting the RAS–RAF–MEK and PI3K–AKT–mTOR pathways. These signals may prove important to the short- and long-term sensitivity of tumor cells to MEK- and PI3K-targeted therapies. Targeted therapeutics that block signal transduction through the RAS–RAF–MEK and PI3K–AKT–mTOR pathways offer significant promise for the treatment of human malignancies. Dual inhibition of MAP/ERK kinase (MEK) and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) with the potent and selective small-molecule inhibitors GDC-0973 and GDC-0941 has been shown to trigger tumor cell death in preclinical models. Here we have used phosphomotif antibodies and mass spectrometry (MS) to investigate the effects of MEK/PI3K dual inhibition during the period immediately preceding cell death. Upon treatment, melanoma cell lines responded by dramatically increasing phosphorylation on proteins containing a canonical DNA damage-response (DDR) motif, as defined by a phosphorylated serine or threonine residue adjacent to glutamine, [s/t]Q. In total, >2,000 [s/t]Q phosphorylation sites on >850 proteins were identified by LC-MS/MS, including an extensive network of DDR proteins. Linear mixed-effects modeling revealed 101 proteins in which [s/t]Q phosphorylation was altered significantly in response to GDC-0973/GDC-0941. Among the most dramatic changes, we observed rapid and sustained phosphorylation of sites within the ABCDE cluster of DNA-dependent protein kinase. Preincubation of cells with the inhibitors of the DDR kinases DNA-dependent protein kinase or ataxia-telangiectasia mutated enhanced GDC-0973/GDC-0941–mediated cell death. Network analysis revealed specific enrichment of proteins involved in RNA metabolism along with canonical DDR proteins and suggested a prominent role for this pathway in the response to MEK/PI3K dual inhibition.