Genome-wide identification of genes conferring resistance to the anticancer agents cisplatin, oxaliplatin, and mitomycin C

Cisplatin is a crucial agent in the treatment of many solid tumors, yet many tumors have either acquired or intrinsic resistance to the drug. We have used the homozygous diploid deletion pool of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, containing 4728 strains with individual deletion of all nonessential genes, to systematically identify genes that when deleted confer sensitivity to the anticancer agents cisplatin, oxaliplatin, and mitomycin C. We found that deletions of genes involved in nucleotide excision repair, recombinational repair, postreplication repair including translesional synthesis, and DNA interstrand cross-link repair resulted in sensitivity to all three of the agents, although with some differences between the platinum drugs and mitomycin C in the spectrum of required translesional polymerases. Putative defective repair of oxidative damage (imp2' Delta strain) also resulted in sensitivity to platinum and oxaliplatin, but not to mitomycin C. Surprisingly in light of their different profiles of clinical activity, cisplatin and oxaliplatin have very similar sensitivity profiles. Finally, we identified three novel genes (PSY1-3, "platinum sensitivity") that, when deleted, demonstrate sensitivity to cisplatin and oxaliplatin, but not to mitomycin C. Our results emphasize the importance of multiple DNA repair pathways responsible for normal cellular resistance to all three of the agents. Also, the similarity of the sensitivity profiles of the platinum agents with that of the known DNA interstrand cross-linking agent mitomycin C, and the importance of the gene PSO2 known to be involved in DNA interstrand cross-link repair strongly suggests that interstrand cross-links are important toxic lesions for cisplatin and oxaliplatin, at least in yeast.