Mechanisms of linear energy transfer-dependent radiation resistance in myeloid leukemia cells

Ionizing radiations (IRs) of high linear energy transfer (LET), such as alpha particles, produce fundamentally different forms of DNA damage in cells than conventional low LET radiation, such as gamma rays. Alpha particle therapies have recently emerged as important potential treatments of cancer, particularly for relatively easily-accessible malignancies of the hematopoietic system. Therefore, we created stable radioresistant myeloid leukemia HL60 cell clones derived after irradiation from either gamma rays (RG) or alpha particles (RA) in order to understand whether resistance to high LET (IR) was possible and the potential differences in radioresistance that could arise from radiations of different LET. Repeated irradiations yielded radioresistant HL60 clones and, regardless of derivation, displayed similar levels of resistance to IR of either type of radiation. The resistant phenotype in each type of radioresistant clone was driven by similar, multifactorial changes that included significant reductions in apoptosis, a decreased late G2/M checkpoint accumulation that was indicative of increased genomic instability, as well as more robust repair of specific types of DNA lesions that included DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). The relative changes in resistance to alpha particles, however, were substantially lower than the increase in resistance to gamma rays. The data suggest that these processes were interdependent, as inhibition of homology directed repair in the resistant clones sensitized them to gamma IR to a larger extent than naive HL60 cells. Finally, we identified the downregulation of iron regulatory protein 1 (IRP1) in gamma-resistant cells but not in alpha-resistant cells. Short-hairpin RNA-mediated reductions in expression of IRP1 in radiation-naive HL60 cells led to significant radioresistance to gamma rays, but not alpha particles. The IRP1-mediated radioresistance was associated with changes in iron-mediated oxidative stress that led to significant reductions in IR-induced apoptosis and faster DNA repair, and appeared to be specific to cytotoxic agents dependent on oxidative-type stress. The data suggest that many similarities exist between radioresistant cells derived from fundamentally different types of IR, but that there are also LET-specific changes in cellular adaptation to repeated IR exposure. The data also underscore the potent cytotoxicity of alpha particles and warrant their continued investigation as cancer therapies.