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. 2025 Jun 26.
doi: 10.1007/s10495-025-02136-7. Online ahead of print.

DNA damage repair inhibitors boost targeted radionuclide therapy and immunotherapy of prostate cancer

Bin Xu #  1 , Lei Tao #  1 , Juan Sun  1 , Jiangtao Yang  1 , Fenghua Meng  2 , Zhiyuan Zhong  3   4
Affiliations

DNA damage repair inhibitors boost targeted radionuclide therapy and immunotherapy of prostate cancer

Bin Xu et al. Apoptosis. .

Abstract

Targeted radionuclide therapy (TRT) has emerged as a valuable treatment for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients. The radioresistance coupled with heterogeneity and immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment of mCRPC, however, greatly restricts the clinical response and anticancer immunity. Here, we found that DNA damage repair inhibitors, in particular ATM inhibitor (ATMi), effectively boost TRT and immunotherapy of prostate cancer. ATMi significantly amplified TRT-induced DNA damage and immunogenic cell death in tumor cells, by impairing double-strand break repair and arresting cell cycle progression, which reshaped the tumor microenvironment and markedly improved tumor inhibition and survival rate in murine RM-1-hPSMA tumor model. Intriguingly, addition of αCTLA-4 antibody further resulted in 71% mice complete regression. TRT in combination with ATMi and αCTLA-4 appeared to boost adaptive and long-lasting anticancer immunity. Our results signify that ATM inhibitor not only sensitizes targeted radionuclide therapy but also effectively augments immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy.

Keywords: DNA damage repair inhibitors; Immune checkpoint inhibitors; Prostate cancer; Radioresistance; Targeted radionuclide therapy.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

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