Checkpoint kinase inhibitor AZD7762 enhance cisplatin-induced apoptosis in osteosarcoma cells

BACKGROUND: AZD7762 is a checkpoint kinase 1 (Chk 1) inhibitor, which has been reported to sensitize many tumor cells to DNA damage. However, whether AZD7762 could sensitize osteosarcoma cells to chemotherapy cisplatin has not been defined. METHODS: We used a variety of methods such as cell viability assays, flow cytometry, western blotting, and immunohistochemistry analysis to determine AZD7762 enhancing cisplatin-induced apoptosis on osteosarcoma cell lines in vitro and in vivo. RESULTS: In the present study, we demonstrated that AZD7762 could enhance cisplatin-mediated apoptosis and mitotic catastrophe of osteosarcoma cells in vitro, and promote the inhibition of xenograft growth induced by cisplatin in vivo. The mechanistic study indicated that AZD7762 enhance the effect of cisplatin through abrogating cisplatin-mediated G2/M arrest and inhibiting the cisplatin damage repair as demonstrated by increasing cisplatin-induced γH2AX expression. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that AZD7762 could effectively promote cisplatin-induced apoptosis and mitotic catastrophe in osteosarcoma cells. The clinical application of AZD7762 as an adjuvant in the chemotherapy of osteosarcoma should be further explored. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12935-019-0896-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.