Cigarette smoke and decreased DNA repair by Xeroderma Pigmentosum Group C use a double hit mechanism for epithelial cell lung carcinogenesis

Emerging evidence suggests a complex interplay of environmental and genetic factors in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) development. Among these factors, compromised DNA repair plays a critical but incompletely understood role in lung tumorigenesis and concurrent lung diseases, such as chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD). In this study, we investigated the interplay between cigarette smoke, DNA damage and repair, focusing on the Nucleotide Excision Repair (NER) protein Xeroderma Pigmentosum Group C (XPC). We found decreased XPC mRNA expression in most NSCLCs compared to subject-matched, non-cancerous lung. In non-cancerous bronchial epithelial cells, cigarette smoke decreased NER, increased total DNA damage and resultant apoptosis, each exacerbated by XPC deficiency. In contrast, lung cancer cells exhibit greater resilience to cigarette smoke, requiring higher doses to induce comparable DNA damage and apoptosis, and are less reliant on XPC expression for survival. Importantly, XPC protects against chromosomal instability in benign bronchial epithelial cells, but not in lung cancer cells. Our findings support a "double hit" mechanism wherein early decreased XPC expression and resultant aberrant DNA repair, when combined with cigarette smoke exposure, may lead to loss of non-malignant epithelial cells (as observed in COPD), and contributes to early NSCLC transition through altered DNA damage response.