Autophagy deficiency downregulates O(6)methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase and increases chemosensitivity of liver cancer cells

It is known that autophagy-deficient cells are prone to DNA damage, but the specific role of autophagy in DNA damage repair is not fully known. Here, we show that autophagy-deficient liver cancer cells exhibit increased DNA damage caused by the chemotherapeutic agent epirubicin. Autophagy deficiency promotes downregulation of the DNA repair enzyme O(6)methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) in liver cancer cells. However, autophagy induction with epirubicin had no impact on MGMT gene or protein expression in liver cancer cells. In the absence of autophagy, the chemosensitivity of liver cancer cells was increased, but this was reversed by MGMT overexpression, indicating that autophagy mediates resistance to chemotherapy in liver cancer cells via MGMT. These findings demonstrate a direct link between autophagy, MGMT, and DNA damage repair in liver cancer cells, and show that MGMT not only regulates chemosensitivity to alkylating agents, but may also be involved in other DNA damage repair processes in autophagy-deficient cells.