Journal: bioRxiv
Article Title: Dual targeting of PDPK1 and BRAF V600E is synthetically lethal
doi: 10.64898/2026.03.15.711663
Figure Lengend Snippet: (A) Mutated BRAF V600E ATC cells (8505C) were treated for 48 h with BX795 (2.5 µM), dabrafenib (Dab) (2.5 µM), or their combination. Then, total and phosphorylated protein levels were measured using mass spectrometry. (A–C) The volcano plots show significantly upregulated proteins in red, significantly downregulated proteins in blue (p < 0.05), and non-significant proteins in gray. The x-axis represents log 2 fold change, and the y-axis shows –log 10 (p-value). The dashed lines indicate thresholds for statistical significance and fold change. (D) The Venn diagrams shows shared and treatment-specific differentially expressed proteins and phosphorylated proteins across the treatment groups (p < 0.05). The overlapping regions represent a conserved core proteomic response, while the non-overlapping regions indicate pathway-specific effects of PDPK1 or BRAF inhibition. (E–G) Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) of ranked phosphorylated site changes following BX795 (E), Dab (F), or combination (G) treatment. The bar plots show normalized enrichment scores (NES) for Hallmark Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) signaling pathways. (H) Western blot analysis of the effect of BX795 (2.5 µM), Dab (2.5 µM), or combination treatment on BRAF V600E–mutant ATC cell lines (8505C and SW1736) after 48 h. pMEK, total MEK, pAKT 308 , total AKT, pPDPK1 S241 , PARP-1, BCL2, and caspase-3 protein levels are shown, with β-actin used as a loading control. (I) Flow cytometry results of Annexin V/PI staining with BX795 (2.5 µM), Dab (2.5 µM), or combination treatment. (J) Western blot analysis of apoptosis regulatory proteins 40 h after treatment. pBAD S112 , BAD, BCL2, pGSK3β Ser9 , GSK3β, and the double-stranded DNA damage marker pH2AX S139 are shown, with β-actin used as a loading control. Protein band density was measured and normalized to β-actin. The phosphorylated to total protein ratios were measured, and the values are listed above the phosphoprotein band. Protein band density of BCL-xL and pH2AX S139 were also measured and normalized to β-actin. (K) Immunoprecipitation of BCL-xL and BCL2 with BAD 30 h after treatment with BX795 and Dab in BRAF V600E–mutant ATC cell lines. Protein band density was measured and normalized to the input protein band. The ratio of immunoprecipitated to total input protein was measured and is listed below the protein blot. P = phosphorylation. The superscript indicates the amino acid phosphorylation site. (L) The heatmap shows z-scored log 2 -transformed abundance of apoptosis-related proteins for the BX795, Dab, and combination treatment groups in 8505C ATC cells. The proteins are displayed in sequential order—BAD, TNFRSF10A, PARP1, FAS, BID, CASP3, CASP8, BAX, CASP9, CASP7, BCL2L1, and BAK1—with hierarchical clustering applied to the rows. (M) The effect of BX795 (2.5 µM), Dab (2.5 µM), or combination treatment for 16 h on γH2AX foci formation in the 8505C and SW1736 ATC cell lines using immunofluorescence. γH2AX was labelled with Alexa Fluor™ 546 secondary antibody, with DAPI used for nuclear staining. A Zeiss LSM 800 confocal microscope was used to examine the cells (400× magnification). The number of foci per cell was quantified using ImageJ. All data are presented as the mean ± standard error of the mean of 25 cells. Statistical significance is indicated as ns = nonsignificant; *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p<0.001; ****p < 0.0001. (N) Western blot analysis of the effect of BX795 (2.5 µM), Dab (2.5 µM), or combination treatment for 16 h on DNA damage–dependent proteins (pATM, total ATM, pCHK2, Total CHK2, and pCHK1). β-Actin was used as a loading control. (O) Cell cycle analysis after BX795 (2.5 µM), Dab (2.5 µM), or combination treatment for 16 h in BRAF V600E–mutant ATC cell lines (8505C and SW1736). Cells were stained with propidium iodide (PI) and analyzed by fluorescence-activated cell sorting. The DNA content was measured, 2N (diploid) and 4N (tetraploid), based on the PI-stained DNA content. (P) The effect of BX795 (2.5 µM), Dab (2.5 µM), or combination treatment for 16 h on DNA repair proteins—cyclin D, cyclin B, pcdc25c, pCDK1, total CDK1, pH3A, H3A, and cyclin A2—by immunoblotting. β-actin was used as a loading control. The ratio of phospho-H3A to total H3A was measured and is listed below the phospho-H3A protein band. All data are presented as the mean ± standard deviation. Statistical significance is indicated as ns = nonsignificant; *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001; ****p < 0.0001. (Q) Analysis of the effect of combination BX795 (2.5 µM) and Dab (2.5 µM) treatment for 16 h followed by proteasomal degradation inhibition for 6 h (MG132, 10 µM). Protein band density was measured and normalized to β-actin. (R) The heatmap shows z-scored log2-transformed phosphorylation levels of DNA damage response, DNA repair, and cell-cycle regulatory proteins for the BX795, Dab, and combination treatment groups in 8505C ATC cell line. Proteins are displayed in sequential order as RAD50, CDK1, MCM2, PRKDC, RB1, TP53BP1, TP53, XRCC1, XRCC5, LIG1, MDC1, and MSH6, with supervised hierarchical clustering applied to the rows. The color scale represents relative protein levels (red = higher; blue = lower).
Article Snippet: The BCPAP (homozygous mutated BRAF V600E) cell line was purchased from Leibniz Institute DSMZ (Lower Saxony, Germany).
Techniques: Mass Spectrometry, Inhibition, Protein-Protein interactions, Western Blot, Mutagenesis, Control, Flow Cytometry, Staining, Marker, Immunoprecipitation, Phospho-proteomics, Transformation Assay, Immunofluorescence, Microscopy, Cell Cycle Assay, Fluorescence, FACS, Standard Deviation