Deficiency of 15-LOX-1 induces radioresistance through downregulation of MacroH2A2 in colorectal cancer

Despite the importance of radiation therapy, there are few radiation-related markers available for use in clinical practice. A larger catalog of such biomarkers is required to help clinicians decide when radiotherapy should be replaced with a patient-specific treatment. Arachidonate 15-lipoxygenase (15-LOX-1) enzyme is involved in polyunsaturated fatty acid metabolism. When colorectal cancer (CRC) cells were exposed to radiation, 15-LOX-1 was upregulated. To verify whether 15-LOX-1 protects against or induces DNA damage, we irradiated sh15-LOX-1 stable cells. We found that low 15-LOX-1 is correlated with radioresistance in CRC cells. These data suggest that the presence of 15-LOX-1 can be used as a marker for radiation-induced DNA damage. Consistent with this observation, gene-set-enrichment analysis based on microarray experiments showed that UV_RESPONSE was decreased in sh15-LOX-1 cells compared to shCon cells. Moreover, we discovered that the expression of the histone H2A variant macroH2A2 was sevenfold lower in sh15-LOX-1 cells. Overall, our findings present mechanistic evidence that macroH2A2 is transcriptionally regulated by 15-LOX-1 and suppresses the DNA damage response in irradiated cells by delaying H2AX activation.