Preservation of circadian rhythm in hepatocellular cancer

Mutations of the circadian clock genes Cry, Per, or Bmal1 have different effects on the transcribed and nontranscribed strands of cycling genes

One important goal of circadian medicine is to apply time-of-day dosing to improve the efficacy of chemotherapy. However, limited knowledge of how the circadian clock regulates DNA repair presents a challenge to mechanism-based clinical application. We studied time-series genome-wide nucleotide excision repair in liver and kidney of wild type and three different clock mutant genotypes (Cry1-/-Cry2-/-, Per1-/-Per2-/-, and Bmal1-/-). Rhythmic repair on the nontranscribed strand was lost in all three clock mutants. Conversely, rhythmic repair of hundreds of genes on the transcribed strand (TSs) persisted in the livers of Cry1-/-Cry2-/- and Per1-/-Per2-/- mice. We identified a tissue-specific, promoter element-driven repair mode on TSs of collagen and angiogenesis genes in the absence of clock activators or repressors. Furthermore, repair on TSs of thousands of genes was altered when the circadian clock is disrupted. These data contribute to a better understanding of the regulatory role of the circadian clock on nucleotide excision repair in mammals and may be invaluable toward the design of time-aware platinum-based interventions in cancer.