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Repurposing clinically safe drugs for DNA repair pathway choice in CRISPR genome editing and synthetic lethality

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  • Dominik Macak

    (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology)

  • Philipp Kanis

    (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology)

  • Stephan Riesenberg

    (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology)

Abstract

We evaluate the effect of most FDA-approved drugs (>7,000 conditions) on double-strand DNA break repair pathways by analyzing mutational outcomes in human induced pluripotent stem cells. We identify drugs that can be repurposed as inhibitors and enhancers of repair outcomes attributed to non-homologous and microhomology-mediated end joining (NHEJ, MMEJ), and homology-directed repair (HDR). We also identify functions of the proteins estrogen receptor 2 (ESR2) and aldehyde oxidase 1 (AOX1), affecting several key DNA repair proteins, such as ATM and 53BP1. Silencing of ESR2 can have a synergistic effect on increasing HDR when combined with NHEJ inhibition (mean 4.6-fold increase). We further identify drugs that induce synthetic lethality when NHEJ or HDR is blocked and may therefore be candidates for precision medicine. We anticipate that the ability to modulate the DNA repair outcomes with clinically safe drugs will help disease modeling, gene therapy, chimeric antigen receptor immunotherapy, and cancer treatment.

Suggested Citation

  • Dominik Macak & Philipp Kanis & Stephan Riesenberg, 2025. "Repurposing clinically safe drugs for DNA repair pathway choice in CRISPR genome editing and synthetic lethality," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-15, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-67243-0
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-67243-0
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