Naturally occurring polyphenol, morin hydrate, inhibits enzymatic activity of N-methylpurine DNA glycosylase, a DNA repair enzyme with various roles in human disease.

Interest in the mechanisms of DNA repair pathways, including the base excision repair (BER) pathway specifically, has heightened since these pathways have been shown to modulate important aspects of human disease. Modulation of the expression or activity of a particular BER enzyme, N-methylpurine DNA glycosylase (MPG), has been demonstrated to play a role in carcinogenesis and resistance to chemotherapy as well as neurodegenerative diseases, which has intensified the focus on studying MPG-related mechanisms of repair. A specific small molecule inhibitor for MPG activity would be a valuable biochemical tool for understanding these repair mechanisms. By screening several small molecule chemical libraries, we identified a natural polyphenolic compound, morin hydrate, which inhibits MPG activity specifically (IC50=2.6µM). Detailed mechanism analysis showed that morin hydrate inhibited substrate DNA binding of MPG, and eventually the enzymatic activity of MPG. Computational docking studies with an x-ray derived MPG structure as well as comparison studies with other structurally-related flavonoids offer a rationale for the inhibitory activity of morin hydrate observed. The results of this study suggest that the morin hydrate could be an effective tool for studying MPG function and it is possible that morin hydrate and its derivatives could be utilized in future studies focused on the role of MPG in human disease.

Redox regulation of apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 activity in Long-Evans Cinnamon rats during spontaneous hepatitis.

The Long-Evans Cinnamon (LEC) rat is an animal model for Wilson's disease. This animal is genetically predisposed to copper accumulation in the liver, increased oxidative stress, accumulation of DNA damage, and the spontaneous development of hepatocellular carcinoma. Thus, this animal model is useful for studying the relationship of endogenous DNA damage to spontaneous carcinogenesis. In this study, we have investigated the apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 (APE1)-mediated excision repair of endogenous DNA damage, apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP)-sites, which is highly mutagenic and implicated in human cancer. We found that the activity was reduced in the liver extracts from the acute hepatitis period of LEC rats as compared with extracts from the age-matched Long-Evans Agouti rats. The acute hepatitis period had also a heightened oxidative stress condition as assessed by an increase in oxidized glutathione level and loss of enzyme activity of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase, a key redox-sensitive protein in cells. Interestingly, the activity reduction was not due to changes in protein expression but apparently by reversible protein oxidation as the addition of reducing agents to extracts of the liver from acute hepatitis period reactivated APE1 activity and thus, confirmed the oxidation-mediated loss of APE1 activity under increased oxidative stress. These findings show for the first time in an animal model that the repair mechanism of AP-sites is impaired by increased oxidative stress in acute hepatitis via redox regulation which contributed to the increased accumulation of mutagenic AP-sites in liver DNA.

A comparative study of recombinant mouse and human apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease.

Mammalian apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease (APE1) initiates the repair of abasic sites (AP-sites), which are highly toxic, mutagenic, and implicated in carcinogenesis. Also, reducing the activity of APE1 protein in cancer cells and tumors sensitizes mammalian tumor cells to a variety of laboratory and clinical chemotherapeutic agents. In general, mouse models are used in studies of basic mechanisms of carcinogenesis, as well as pre-clinical studies before transitioning into humans. Human APE1 (hAPE1) has previously been cloned, expressed, and extensively characterized. However, the knowledge regarding the characterization of mouse APE1 (mAPE1) is very limited. Here we have expressed and purified full-length hAPE1 and mAPE1 in and from E. coli to near homogeneity. mAPE1 showed comparable fast reaction kinetics to its human counterpart. Steady-state enzyme kinetics showed an apparent K(m) of 91 nM and k(cat) of 4.2 s(-1) of mAPE1 for the THF cleavage reaction. For hAPE1 apparent K(m) and k(cat) were 82 nM and 3.2 s(-1), respectively, under similar reaction conditions. However, k(cat)/K(m) were in similar range for both APE1s. The optimum pH was in the range of 7.5-8 for both APE1s and had an optimal activity at 50-100 mM KCl, and they showed Mg(2+) dependence and abrogation of activity at high salt. Circular dichroism spectroscopy revealed that increasing the Mg(2+) concentration altered the ratio of "turns" to "ß-strands" for both proteins, and this change may be associated with the conformational changes required to achieve an active state. Overall, compared to hAPE1, mAPE1 has higher K(m) and k(cat) values. However, overall results from this study suggest that human and mouse APE1s have mostly similar biochemical and biophysical properties. Thus, the conclusions of mouse studies to elucidate APE1 biology and its role in carcinogenesis may be extrapolated to apply to human biology. This includes the development and validation of effective APE1 inhibitors as chemosensitizers in clinical studies.