DGIST has successfully discovered a novel DNA damage repair pathway in human cells

□ Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST; President Kunwoo Lee) announced that a research team led by Professor Younghoon Kee from the Department of New Biology has successfully identified a novel DNA damage repair pathway in human cells.

□ This study is the first to discover that proteins present in the nuclear membrane of cells directly interact with damaged DNA, forming part of a signaling pathway that helps repair DNA. The findings of this study facilitate a clearer understanding of the DNA repair mechanism, which is crucial for cancer treatment, and they are expected to help overcome treatment resistance in cancer cells in the future.

□ While DNA contains important genetic information that regulates the life activities of cells, it can be easily damaged by radiation or chemicals. In particular, if severe damage called “double-strand breaks” (DSB) is not properly repaired, cells may die or become cancerous. Although DSB repair is an important defense mechanism that prevents the proliferation of cancer cells, they may exploit this repair ability to develop resistance to anticancer drugs.

□ In this study, Professor Kee’s team found that damaged DNA is present in a protein structure called the nuclear pore complex (NPC), which is located in the nuclear membrane of the cell nucleus. This finding is an essential clue that DNA, when damaged, moves to a specific location within cells to interact with the proteins needed for repair. While this phenomenon has been reported in organisms such as yeast and fruit flies, this study has demonstrated the same phenomenon in human cells for the first time.

□ The research team also found that damaged DNA binds to nuclear membrane proteins to initiate the repair process and identified the protein site required for this interaction. This discovery could pave the way for a novel anticancer treatment strategy that regulates the DNA damage repair mechanism or inhibits the repair ability of cancer cells.

□ “This study marks an important milestone in identifying a novel DNA repair pathway in human cells and offers a clue to understand cancer development and treatment resistance,” said Professor Younghoon Kee. “The interaction mechanism of nuclear membrane proteins and DNA may contribute to developing anticancer drugs in the future.”

□ This study was funded by the Mid-Career Researcher Support Project of the National Research Foundation of Korea and jointly conducted by research teams led by Professor Kyungjae Myung from Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) and Professor Michele Pagano from the NYU School of Medicine in the United States. The results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (IF 9.4).

 - Corresponding Author E-mail Address: ykee@dgist.ac.kr