Use of host cell reactivation of cisplatin-treated adenovirus 5 in human cell lines to detect repair of drug-treated DNA

This study demonstrates that whilst some DNA-repair deficiencies can be detected using host cell reactivation of cisplatin (CDDP)-treated adenovirus (Ad5), not all repair deficiencies affected replication of CDDP-treated Ad5 in human cells. A line of fibroblasts (XP25), derived from a patient with a UV-hypersensitive syndrome xeroderma pigmentosum (XP), was found, as previously reported [1], to be deficient in reactivating the treated virus when compared to the apparently repair-proficient human tumor cell lines established from bladder and ovarian carcinomas. However, a testicular teratoma cell line (SuSa), shown previously to be deficient in the repair of guanine-guanine (G-G) intrastrand crosslinks, adenine-guanine (A-G) intrastrand crosslinks and interstrand crosslinks [2], was found to reactivate the treated virus to a similar extent as the repair-proficient ovarian tumor cell line and the similarly repair-proficient RT112 cell line derived from a bladder carcinoma. Therefore, not all repair-deficient cell lines were deficient at CDDP-treated Ad5 reactivation. However, the HCR technique may still prove to be useful as a rapid screen for DNA-repair deficiencies in CDDP-sensitive cells of unknown repair capacity. A CDDP-sensitive ovarian tumor cell line (TR175) was deficient in reactivating CDDP-treated Ad5, whilst another ovarian cell line (TR170) of intermediate CDDP sensitivity reactivated the virus to a marginally higher extent than the other more CDDP-resistant repair proficient ovarian cell line (SKOV3). In addition, sublines of either the SuSa cells or the RT112 cells expressing approximately two-fold levels of resistance or increased sensitivity to CDDP, showed no change in their abilities to reactivate this CDDP-treated virus, compared to their parental lines. CDDP-treated Ad5 was also used as a lethal probe to obtain cell lines specifically deficient in DNA repair. One such deficient line (SKOV3-C3A), derived from the SKOV3 ovarian carcinoma cell line, displayed an unusual biphasic curve for reactivation of the CDDP-treated virus. Further cell lines derived in this novel manner may prove useful in analysing the genetics of CDDP-repair.