alpha v beta 3 and alpha v beta 5 integrins control glioma cell response to ionising radiation through ILK and RhoB

Integrins are extracellular matrix receptors involved in tumour invasion and angiogenesis. Although there is evidence that inhibiting integrins might enhance the efficiency of radiotherapy, little is known about the exact mechanisms involved in the integrin-dependent modulation of tumor radiosensitivity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of v3 and v5 integrins in glioblastoma cell radioresistance and overall to decipher the downstream biological pathways. We first demonstrated that silencing v3 and v5 integrins with specific siRNAs significantly reduced the survival after irradiation of 2 glioblastoma cell lines: U87 and SF763. We then showed that integrin activity and integrin signalling pathways controlled the glioma cell radiosensitivity. This regulation of glioma cell response to ionising radiation was mediated through the integrin-linked kinase, ILK, and the small GTPase, RhoB, by two mechanisms. The first one, independent of ILK, consists in the regulation of the intracellular level of RhoB by v3 or v5 integrin. The second pathway involved in cell radiosensitivity consists in RhoB activation by ionising radiation through ILK. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the v3/v5 integrins/ILK/RhoB pathway controlled the glioma cells radiosensitivity by regulating radiation-induced mitotic cell death. This work identifies a new biological pathway controlling glioblastoma cells radioresistance, activated from the membrane through v3 and/or v5 integrins via ILK and RhoB. Our results are clues that downstream effectors of v3 and v5 integrins as ILK and RhoB might also be promising candidate targets for improving the efficiency of radiotherapy and thus the clinical outcome of patients with glioblastoma.