Reduced lung tumorigenesis in human methylguanine DNA--methyltransferase transgenic mice achieved by expression of transgene within the target cell.
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Human methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) transgenic mice expressing high levels of O6-alkylguanine-DNA alkyltransferase (AGT) in lung were crossbred to A/J mice that are susceptible to pulmonary adenoma to study the impact of O6-methylguanine (O6mG)-DNA adduct repair on NNK-induced lung tumorigenesis. Expression of the chimeric human MGMT transgene in lung was identified by northern and western blot analysis, immunohistochemistry assay and enzymatic assay. AGT activity was 17.6 +/- 3.2 versus 1.2 +/- 0.4 fmol/microg DNA in lung of MGMT transgenic mice compared with non-transgenic mice. Immunohistochemical staining with anti-human AGT antibody showed that human AGT was expressed throughout the lung. However, some epithelial cells of bronchi and alveoli did not stain for human AGT, suggesting that the human MGMT transgene expression was heterogeneous. After 100 mg/kg NNK i.p. injection in MGMT transgenic mice, lung AGT activity remained much higher and levels of lung O6mG-DNA adducts in MGMT transgenic mice were lower than those of non-transgenic mice. In the tumorigenesis study, mice received 100 mg/kg NNK at 6 weeks of age and were killed 44 weeks later. Ten of 17 MGMT transgenic mice compared with 16 of 17 non-transgenic mice had lung tumors, P < 0.05. MGMT transgenic mice had lower multiplicity and smaller sized lung tumors than non-transgenic mice. Moreover, a reduction in the frequency of K-ras mutations in lung tumors was found in MGMT transgenic mice (6.7 versus 50% in non-transgenic mice). These results indicate that high levels of AGT expressed in mouse lung reduce lung tissue susceptibility to NNK-induced tumorigenesis due to increased repair capacity for O6mG, subsequently, decreased mutational activation of K-ras oncogene. Heterogeneity in the level of AGT expressed in different lung cell populations or other forms of carcinogenic DNA damage caused by NNK may explain the residual incidence of lung tumors in MGMT transgenic mice. (+info)
The contribution of DNA ploidy to radiation sensitivity in human tumour cell lines.
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The contribution of DNA ploidy to radiation sensitivity was investigated in a group of eight human tumour cell lines. As previous studies suggest, while more aneuploid tumours tend to be more radioresistant, there is no significant relationship between ploidy and radiation sensitivity (SF2). The failure to observe a significant effect of ploidy on radiation sensitivity is due to the complex and multifactorial basis of radiation sensitivity. When we determined the relationship between survival and radiation-induced chromosome aberration frequency, a measure independent of most other modifiers of sensitivity, we observed a direct relationship between ploidy and mean lethal aberration frequency. The mean lethal frequency of aberrations increased from about 1 for diploid cells to about 2 for tetraploid cells. The mean lethal frequency of aberrations was independent of DNA repair variations. These observations demonstrate that changes in DNA ploidy are an important contributor to radiation sensitivity variations in human tumour cell lines. Therefore, any battery of predictive assays should include DNA ploidy measurements. (+info)
Modification of non-conservative double-strand break (DSB) rejoining activity after the induction of cisplatin resistance in human tumour cells.
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The induction of collateral radioresistance after the development of cisplatin resistance is a well-documented phenomenon; however, the exact processes that are responsible for the cisplatin-induced radioresistance remain to be elucidated. There was no obvious difference in the level of radiation-induced DNA double strand breaks (DSBs), in DSB rejoining rates, or the level of the catalytic subunit of the DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PKcs) in the cisplatin- and radiation-sensitive 2780/WT and cisplatin-resistant 2780/CP cell lines. However, there was a significantly (P < 0.01) lower level of DSB misrejoining activity within nuclear protein extracts derived from the cisplatin- and radiation-sensitive 2780/WT and OAW42/WT tumour cell lines than in similar extracts from their cisplatin- (and radiation-) resistant 2780/CP and OAW42/CP counterparts. All of the DSB misrejoining events involved deletions of between 134 and 444 bp that arose through illegitimate recombination at short repetitive sequences, such as those that arise through non-homologous repair (NHR). These data further support the notion that the radiosensitivity of DSB repair proficient human tumour cell lines may be partly determined by the predisposition of these cell lines to activate non-conservative DSB rejoining pathways. Furthermore, our data suggest that the induction of acquired cisplatin resistance is associated with a two- to threefold decrease in the activity of a non-conservative DSB rejoining mechanism that appears to be a manifestation of NHR. (+info)
Hypermethylation of the hMLH1 gene promoter in human gastric cancers with microsatellite instability.
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Human gastric carcinoma shows a higher prevalence of microsatellite instability (MSI) than does any other type of sporadic human cancer. The reasons for this high frequency of MSI are not yet known. In contrast to endometrial and colorectal carcinoma, mutations of the DNA mismatch repair (MMR) genes hMLH1 or hMSH2 have not been described in gastric carcinoma. However, hypermethylation of the hMLH1 MMR gene promoter is quite common in MSI-positive endometrial and colorectal cancers. This hypermethylation has been associated with hMLH1 transcriptional blockade, which is reversible with demethylation, suggesting that an epigenetic mechanism underlies hMLH1 gene inactivation and MMR deficiency. Therefore, we studied the prevalence of hMLH1 promoter hypermethylation in a total of 65 gastric tumors: 18 with frequent MSI (MSI-H), 8 with infrequent MSI (MSI-L), and 39 that were MSI negative. We found a striking association between hMLH1 promoter hypermethylation and MSI; of 18 MSI-H tumors, 14 (77.8%) showed hypermethylation, whereas 6 of 8 MSI-L tumors (75%) were hypermethylated at hMLH1. In contrast, only 1 of 39 (2.6%) MSI-negative tumors demonstrated hMLH1 hypermethylation (P<0.0001 for MSI-H or MSI-L versus MSI-negative). Moreover, hypermethylated cancers demonstrated diminished expression of hMLH1 protein by both immunohistochemistry and Western blotting, whereas nonhypermethylated tumors expressed abundant hMLH1 protein. These data indicate that hypermethylation of hMLH1 is strongly associated with MSI in gastric cancers and suggest an epigenetic mechanism by which defective MMR occurs in this group of cancers. (+info)
Increased ultraviolet sensitivity and chromosomal instability related to P53 function in the xeroderma pigmentosum variant.
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The xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) variant (XPV) is a form of XP that has normal excision repair but shows defective DNA replication after UV irradiation. In developing various transformed fibroblast cell lines from these patients, we have found that there are significant phenotypic changes in transformed cells that seem to correlate with inactivation of p53. After transformation with SV40, XPV cell lines are only slightly UV sensitive, like their primary counterparts, but their sensitization with caffeine and the induction of sister chromatid exchanges (SCEs) by UV irradiation are greatly enhanced. After transformation by HPV16 E7, which targets the retinoblastoma cell cycle regulatory gene, there is no change in the UV sensitivity of XPV cells; but, when transformed by HPV16 E6 or E6 and E7 combined, there is a large increase in UV sensitivity and in the induction of SCEs. These changes are not associated with any detectable changes in the reactivation of an externally irradiated luciferase expression vector, the excision of cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers from bulk DNA, or unscheduled DNA synthesis and, therefore, do not involve excision repair. We suggest that if SCEs represent homologous recombination between sister chromatids, then in the absence of p53 function, the DNA chain arrest typical of UV-damaged XPV cells initiates strand exchange during recovery. In untransformed cells with normal p53, the preferred mode of recovery would then be replication bypass. The symptoms of elevated solar carcinogenesis in XPV patients may, therefore, be associated with increased genomic instability in cells of the skin in which p53 is inactivated by UV-induced mutations. (+info)
Defective repair of cisplatin-induced DNA damage caused by reduced XPA protein in testicular germ cell tumours.
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Metastatic cancer in adults usually has a fatal outcome. In contrast, advanced testicular germ cell tumours are cured in over 80% of patients using cisplatin-based combination chemotherapy [1]. An understanding of why these cells are sensitive to chemotherapeutic drugs is likely to have implications for the treatment of other types of cancer. Earlier measurements indicate that testis tumour cells are hypersensitive to cisplatin and have a low capacity to remove cisplatin-induced DNA damage from the genome [2] [3]. We have investigated the nucleotide excision repair (NER) capacity of extracts from the well-defined 833K and GCT27 human testis tumour cell lines. Both had a reduced ability to carry out the incision steps of NER in comparison with extracts from known repair-proficient cells. Immunoblotting revealed that the testis tumour cells had normal amounts of most NER proteins, but low levels of the xeroderma pigmentosum group A protein (XPA) and the ERCC1-XPF endonuclease complex. Addition of XPA specifically conferred full NER capacity on the testis tumour extracts. These results show that a low XPA level in the testis tumour cell lines is sufficient to explain their poor ability to remove cisplatin adducts from DNA and might be a major reason for the high cisplatin sensitivity of testis tumours. Targeted inhibition of XPA could sensitise other types of cells and tumours to cisplatin and broaden the usefulness of this chemotherapeutic agent. (+info)
The DNA-dependent protein kinase catalytic activity regulates DNA end processing by means of Ku entry into DNA.
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The DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) is required for double-strand break repair in mammalian cells. DNA-PK contains the heterodimer Ku and a 460-kDa serine/threonine kinase catalytic subunit (p460). Ku binds in vitro to DNA termini or other discontinuities in the DNA helix and is able to enter the DNA molecule by an ATP-independent process. It is clear from in vitro experiments that Ku stimulates the recruitment to DNA of p460 and activates the kinase activity toward DNA-binding protein substrates in the vicinity. Here, we have examined in human nuclear cell extracts the influence of the kinase catalytic activity on Ku binding to DNA. We demonstrate that, although Ku can enter DNA from free ends in the absence of p460 subunit, the kinase activity is required for Ku translocation along the DNA helix when the whole Ku/p460 assembles on DNA termini. When the kinase activity is impaired, DNA-PK including Ku and p460 is blocked at DNA ends and prevents their processing by either DNA polymerization, degradation, or ligation. The control of Ku entry into DNA by DNA-PK catalytic activity potentially represents an important regulation of DNA transactions at DNA termini. (+info)
Microsatellite instability in Drosophila spellchecker1 (MutS homolog) mutants.
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We have cloned a mutS homolog from Drosophila melanogaster called spellchecker1 (spel1) and have constructed spel1 mutant flies. MutS proteins promote the correction of DNA mismatches and serve important roles in DNA replication, recombination, and repair. The spel1 gene belongs to a subfamily of mutS first characterized by the MSH2 gene of yeast and which also includes hMSH2, one of the two major hereditary nonpolyposis colon cancer loci of humans. Like msh2 mutants in other species, we find that flies lacking the spel1 gene suffer a highly increased rate of instability in long runs of dinucleotide repeats when analyzed after 10-12 fly generations. Using a new assay, we have also discovered that mutations in spel1 decrease the stability of a dinucleotide repeat when it is copied into the site of a double-strand break during gene conversion. Contrary to the case in mammalian cells, spel1 deficiency does not affect tolerance of flies to a methylating agent nor does it affect resistance to gamma-irradiation. (+info)