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The Wee1 inhibitor MK1775 (AZD1775) is currently being tested in clinical trials for cancer treatment. Here, we show that the p53 target and CDK inhibitor p21 protects against MK1775-induced DNA damage during S-phase. Cancer and normal cells deficient for p21 (HCT116 p21-/-, RPE p21-/-, and U2OS transfected with p21 siRNA) showed higher induction of the DNA damage marker γH2AX in S-phase in response to MK1775 compared to the respective parental cells. Furthermore, upon MK1775 treatment the levels of phospho-DNA PKcs S2056 and phospho-RPA S4/S8 were higher in the p21 deficient cells, consistent with increased DNA breakage. Cell cycle analysis revealed that these effects were due to an S-phase function of p21, but MK1775-induced S-phase CDK activity was not altered as measured by CDK-dependent phosphorylations. In the p21 deficient cancer cells MK1775-induced cell death was also increased. Moreover, p21 deficiency sensitized to combined treatment of MK1775 and the CHK1-inhibitor AZD6772, and to the combination of MK1775 with ionizing radiation. These results show that p21 protects cancer cells against Wee1 inhibition and suggest that S-phase functions of p21 contribute to mediate such protection. As p21 can be epigenetically downregulated in human cancer, we propose that p21 levels may be considered during future applications of Wee1 inhibitors.

Death domain-associated protein 6 (DAXX) is a histone chaperone, putative regulator of apoptosis and transcription, and candidate modulator of p53-mediated gene expression following DNA damage. DAXX becomes phosphorylated upon DNA damage, however regulation of this modification, and its relationship to p53 remain unclear. Here we show that in human cells exposed to ionizing radiation or genotoxic drugs etoposide and neocarzinostatin, DAXX became rapidly phosphorylated in an ATM kinase-dependent manner. Our deletion and site-directed mutagenesis experiments identified Serine 564 (S564) as the dominant ATM-targeted site of DAXX, and immunofluorescence experiments revealed localization of S564-phosphorylated DAXX to PML nuclear bodies. Furthermore, using a panel of human cell types, we identified the p53-regulated Wip1 protein phosphatase as a key negative regulator of DAXX phosphorylation at S564, both in vitro and in cells. Consistent with the emerging oncogenic role of Wip1, its DAXX-dephosphorylating impact was most apparent in cancer cell lines harboring gain-of-function mutant and/or overexpressed Wip1. Unexpectedly, while Wip1 depletion increased DAXX phosphorylation both before and after DNA damage and increased p53 stability and transcriptional activity, knock-down of DAXX impacted neither p53 stabilization nor p53-mediated expression of Gadd45a, Noxa, Mdm2, p21, Puma, Sesn2, Tigar or Wip1. Consistently, analyses of cells with genetic, TALEN-mediated DAXX deletion corroborated the notion that neither phosphorylated nor non-phosphorylated DAXX is required for p53-mediated gene expression upon DNA damage. Overall, we identify ATM kinase and Wip1 phosphatase as opposing regulators of DAXX-S564 phosphorylation, and propose that the role of DAXX phosphorylation and DAXX itself are independent of p53-mediated gene expression.