TTK inhibitor promotes radiosensitivity of liver cancer cells through p21

The monopolar spindle 1 ((hMps1/TTK) is a serine/threonine kinase that plays an important role in spindle assembly checkpoint signaling. To explore the possible relationship between TTK inhibition and radiosensitivity, we examined whether TTK inhibition influences cellular susceptibility of radiation. And we further revealed its mechanisms. We found that the expression of TTK was obviously higher in liver cancer tissues compared to the normal liver tissues. Kaplan-Meier Plotter demonstrated that patients with low TTK expression levels had a longer overall survival than patients with high TTK expression levels. TTK inhibitor AZ3146 could simulated liver cancer cells to accumulate in the G2/M phase, which ultimately enhances DNA damage with more γ-H2AX foci and more apoptosis and necrosis induced by radiation, which prompted that TTK inhibition sensitized liver cancer cells to radiation. In addition, TTK inhibition altered cell-cycle progression and exacerbated centrosome abnormalities, resulting in enhanced mitotic catastrophe (MC) induced by radiation in a p21-mediated manner. In this study, we present evidences that the TTK inhibitor promotes the radiosensitivity of liver cancer cells through regulating cell cycle in p21-mediated manner in vitro, indicating that TTK inhibitor may be an attractive radiosensitizer for the patients with liver cancer.