Glioblastoma (GBM) is a devastating primary brain cancer with a poor prognosis. GBM is associated with an abnormal mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway, consisting of two distinct kinase complexes: mTORC1 and mTORC2. The complexes play critical roles in cell proliferation, survival, migration, metabolism, and DNA damage response. This study investigated the aberrant mTORC2 signaling pathway in GBM cells by performing quantitative phosphoproteomic analysis of U87MG cells under different drug treatment conditions. Interestingly, a functional analysis of phosphoproteome revealed that mTORC2 inhibition might be involved in double-strand break (DSB) repair. We further characterized the relationship between mTORC2 and BRISC and BRCA1-A complex member 1 (BABAM1). We demonstrated that pBABAM1 at Ser29 is regulated by mTORC2 to initiate DNA damage response, contributing to DNA repair and cancer cell survival. Accordingly, the inactivation of mTORC2 significantly ablated pBABAM1 (Ser29), reduced DNA repair activities in the nucleus, and promoted apoptosis of the cancer cells. Furthermore, we also recognized that histone H2AX phosphorylation at Ser139 (γH2AX) could be controlled by mTORC2 to repair the DNA. These results provided a better understanding of the mTORC2 function in oncogenic DNA damage response and might lead to specific mTORC2 treatments for brain cancer patients in the future.
Keywords: BABAM1; DNA damage response; glioblastoma; mTORC2; phosphoproteomics.