Applications of Accelerators and Detectors to Cancer Treatment

Abstract:

We reported in 1988 on a new nucleoside modification reaction: the exocyclic amino groups of (d)adenosine and (d)cytidine react rapidly at ambient temperature with acetaldehyde and alcohols to give stable mixed acetals (N-ethylethoxy-acetal). NH2 + O = CH(CH3) + ROH-->NH-CH(CH3)-O-R + H2O. Here we report in detail on the occurrence of this reaction in very dilute aqueous solution (ie under biological conditions), on its mechanism and kinetics, on the mixed acetal formation with other aldehydes and other nucleic acid components, and on the question of whether these adducts are mutagenic.

Abstract:

We previously described a protein, isolated from human tissues and cells, that bound to a defined double-stranded oligonucleotide containing a single site-specifically placed 1,N6-ethenoadenine. It was further demonstrated that this protein was a glycosylase and released 1,N6-ethenoadenine. We now find that this enzyme also releases 3-methyladenine from methylated DNA and that 3-methyladenine-DNA glycosylase behaves in the same manner, binding to the ethenoadenine-containing oligonucleotide and cleaving both ethenoadenine and 3-methyladenine from DNA containing these adducts. The rate and extent of glycosylase activities toward the two adducts are similar.

Abstract:

We previously reported that a variety of human cells and tissues contained a Mr35,000 DNA-binding protein which selectively recognized a single 1,N6-ethenoadenine in a defined 25-base double-stranded oligonucleotide (B. Rydberg et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 88: 6839-6842, 1991). We now demonstrate that incubation of the same duplex with 50-fold partially purified binding protein from human placenta results in release of the free 1,N6-ethenoadenine base, indicative of DNA glycosylase action. This enzyme activity appears unique in that it excises a cyclic adduct resulting from a known human carcinogen.

Abstract:

The frequency of extending m6G.C or m6G.T pairs, when the 3' and 5' flanking neighbors of m6G are either cytosines or thymines, was investigated using primed 25-base-long oligonucleotides and the Klenow fragment of Escherichia coli DNA polymerase I (Kf). The efficiency, Vmax/Km, of extension to the following normal base pair was up to 40-fold greater than for the formation of the m6G.T or m6G.C pair. The frequencies of inserting either dCMP or dTMP opposite these m6G bases did not appear to be different in the two sequences, C-m6G-C and T-m6G-T, but extension was favored in the C-m6G-C sequence. The m6G.T pair extended to a C.G pair most efficiently, indicating that it was not a strong block to continued replication past the template lesion. Thus, m6G.T flanked by cytosines replicates more readily than when flanked by thymines, increasing G----A transitions. These data lend further support to the importance of sequence context in mutagenesis.

Abstract:

Vinyl chloride is a known human and rodent carcinogen that forms several cyclic base derivatives in DNA. The mutagenic potential of these derivatives has been examined in vitro but not in vivo. One of these derivatives, N2,3-ethenoguanine (epsilon G), is known to base pair with both cytosine and thymine during in vitro DNA synthesis, which would result in G----A transitions. To determine the base pairing specificity of this labile guanine derivative in Escherichia coli, we have developed a genetic reversion assay for guanine derivatives. The assay utilizes DNA polymerase-mediated analogue insertion into a bacteriophage vector, M13G*1, which detects all single-base substitutions at position 141 of the lacZ alpha gene by change in plaque color. After the insertion of a single epsilon G opposite the template cytosine at position 141 by use of epsilon dGTP and DNA polymerase and further extension with all four normal dNTPs, the DNA was transfected into E. coli. Transfection of M13G*1 containing epsilon G at the target site yielded 135 mutants among 26,500 plaques, 134 of which represented G----A transitions. The uncorrected mutation frequency was 0.5%, as compared with the control value, approximately 0.02%; when corrected for epsilon G content and penetrance, the calculated mutagenic potential of epsilon G (mutations/analogue) was about 13%. We thus conclude that epsilon G specifically induces G----A transitions during DNA replication in E. coli. The M13G*1 assay may permit the testing of other labile guanine derivatives not otherwise amenable to mutagenesis studies.