Anne Lagerqvist

Both replication bypass fidelity and repair efficiency influence the yield of mutations per target dose in intact mammalian cells induced by benzo[a]pyrene-diol-epoxide and dibenzo[a,l]pyrene-diol-epoxide.

Mutations induced by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are expected to be produced when error-prone DNA replication occurs across unrepaired DNA lesions formed by reactive PAH metabolites such as diol epoxides. The mutagenicity of the two PAH-diol epoxides (+)-anti-7,8-dihydroxy-9,10-epoxy-7,8,9,10-tetrahydrobenzo[a]pyrene (BPDE) and (+/-)-anti-11,12-dihydroxy-13,14-epoxy-11,12,13,14-tetrahydrodibenzo[a,l]pyrene (DBPDE) was compared in nucleotide excision repair (NER) proficient and deficient hamster cell lines. We applied the (32)P-postlabelling assay to analyze adduct levels and the hprt gene mutation assay for monitoring mutations. It was found that the mutagenicity per target dose was 4 times higher for DBPDE compared to BPDE in NER proficient cells while in NER deficient cells, the mutagenicity per target dose was 1.4 times higher for BPDE. In order to investigate to what extent the mutagenicity of the different adducts in NER proficient cells was influenced by repair or replication bypass, we measured the overall NER incision rate, the rate of adduct removal, the rate of replication bypass and the frequency of induced recombination in the hprt gene. The results suggest that NER of BPDE lesions are 5 times more efficient than for DBPDE lesions, in NER proficient cells. However, DBPDE adducts block replication more efficiently and also induce 6 times more recombination events in the hprt gene than adducts of BPDE, suggesting that DBPDE adducts are, to a larger extent, bypassed by homologous recombination. The results obtained here indicate that the mutagenicity of PAH is influenced not only by NER, but also by replication bypass fidelity. This has been postulated earlier based on results using in vitro enzyme assays, but is now also being recognized in terms of forward mutations in intact mammalian cells.

CK2 phosphorylation of XRCC1 facilitates dissociation from DNA and single-strand break formation during base excision repair.

CK2 phosphorylates the scaffold protein XRCC1, which is required for efficient DNA single-strand break (SSB) repair. Here, we express an XRCC1 protein (XRCC1(ckm)) that cannot be phosphorylated by CK2 in XRCC1 mutated EM9 cells and show that the role of this post-translational modification gives distinct phenotypes in SSB repair and base excision repair (BER). Interestingly, we find that fewer SSBs are formed during BER after treatment with the alkylating agent dimethyl sulfate (DMS) in EM9 cells expressing XRCC1(ckm) (CKM cells) or following inhibition with the CK2 inhibitor 2-dimethylamino-4,5,6,7-tetrabromo-1H-benzimidazole (DMAT). We also show that XRCC1(ckm) protein has a higher affinity for DNA than wild type XRCC1 protein and resides in an immobile fraction on DNA, in particular after damage. We propose a model whereby the increased affinity for DNA sequesters XRCC1(ckm) and the repair enzymes associated with it, at the repair site, which retards kinetics of BER. In conclusion, our results indicate that phosphorylation of XRCC1 by CK2 facilitates the BER incision step, likely by promoting dissociation from DNA.

Homologous recombination mediates cellular resistance and fraction size sensitivity to radiation therapy

PURPOSE Cellular sensitivity to radiotherapy total dose and fraction size is strongly influenced by DNA double strand break (DSB) repair. Here, we investigate response to radiotherapy fraction size using CHO cell lines deficient in specific DNA repair pathways in response to radiation induced DNA double strand breaks (DSB). EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN We irradiated CHO cell lines, AA8 (WT), irs1SF (XRCC3-), V3-3 (DNA-PKcs-) and EM9 (XRCC1-) with 16 Gy in 1 Gy daily fractions over 3 weeks or 16 Gy in 4 Gy daily fractions over 4 days, and studied clonogenic survival, DNA DSB repair kinetics (RAD51 and 53BP1 foci staining) and cell cycle profiles (flow cytometry). RESULTS In response to fractionated radiotherapy, wild-type and DNA repair defective cells accumulated in late S/G2 phase. In cells proficient in homologous recombination (HR), accumulation in S/G2 resulted in reduced sensitivity to fraction size and increased cellular resistance (clonogenic survival). Sensitivity to fraction size was also lost in NHEJ-defective V3-3 cells, which likely rely on functional HR. By contrast, HR-defective irs1SF cells, with functional NHEJ, remained equally sensitive to fractionation throughout the 3-week treatment. CONCLUSIONS The high fidelity of HR, which is independent of induced DNA damage level, is postulated to explain the low fractionation sensitivity and cellular resistance of cells in S/G2 phase. In conclusion, our results suggest that HR mediates resistance to fractionated radiotherapy, an observation that may help future efforts to improve radiotherapy outcome.

DNA repair and replication influence the number of mutations per adduct of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in mammalian cells

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are an important class of environmental contaminants many of which require metabolic activation to DNA-reactive bay or fjord region diolepoxides (DE) in order to exert their mutagenic and carcinogenic effects. In this study, the mutagenicity of the bay region diolepoxides (+)-anti-7,8-dihydroxy-9,10-epoxy-7,8,9,10-tetrahydrobenzo[a]pyrene (BPDE) and (±)-anti-1,2-dihydroxy-3,4-epoxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydrodibenzo[a,h]anthracene (DBADE) and the fjord region diolepoxides (±)-anti-11,12-dihydroxy-13,14-epoxy-11,12,13,14-tetrahydrodibenzo[a,l]-pyrene (DBPDE) and (±)-anti-3,4-dihydroxy-1,2-epoxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydrobenzo[c]-phenanthrene (BPhDE) was compared in nucleotide excision repair (NER) proficient and deficient hamster cell lines. The (32)P-postlabelling assay was applied to analyze DNA adduct levels and the Hprt gene mutation assay for monitoring mutations. Previously, we found that the mutagenicity per adduct was four times higher for DBPDE compared to BPDE in NER proficient cells. In these same cells, the mutagenicity of DBADE and BPhDE adducts was now found to be significantly lower compared to that of BPDE. In NER deficient cells the highest mutagenicity per adduct was found for BPDE and there was a tenfold and fivefold difference when comparing the BPDE data with the DBADE and BPhDE data, respectively. In order to investigate to what extent the mutagenicity of the different adducts in NER proficient cells was influenced by repair or replication bypass, we measured the overall NER incision rate, the rate of adduct removal, the rate of replication bypass and the frequency of induced recombination in the Hprt gene. Since NER turned out to be an important pathway for the yield of mutations, we further analyzed the role of transcription coupled NER versus global genome NER. However, our data demonstrate that neither of these pathways seems to be the sole factor determining the mutation frequency of the four PAH-DE and that the differences in the repair efficiency of these compounds could not be related to the presence of a bay or fjord region in the parent PAH.

Structural requirements for mutation formation from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon dihydrodiol epoxides in their interaction with food chemopreventive compounds

Chinese hamster V79 cells were used to investigate the protective effect of four known antimutagens present in food, chlorophyllin (CHL), ellagic acid (EA), epigallocathechingallate (EGCG) and benzylisothiocyanate (BITC), against potent mutagenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon diol epoxides (PAH-DE) derived from benzo[a]pyrene (BP), dibenzo[a,h]anthracene (DBA), dibenzo[a,l]pyrene (DBP), and benzo[c]phenanthrene (BPh) known to be deposited on crops from polluted ambient air or formed during food processing. As fjord-region PAH-DE are more toxic and mutagenic than bay-region PAH-DE, we adjusted the concentrations of PAH-DE to induce approximately the same levels of adducts. The studies were performed using an assay indicating toxicity in terms of reduced cell proliferation together with the V79 Hprt assay for monitoring mutant frequencies. CHL significantly increased the survival and showed a protective effect against the mutagenicity of all PAH-DE. A significant protective effect of EA was found towards the mutagenicity of BPDE, DBPDE and BPhDE and with EGCG for BPDE and BPhDE. BITC had a slight positive effect on the mutagenicity of DBADE and BPhDE. Taken together, a novel and unexpected finding was that the antimutagenic activity could differ as much as by a factor of 7 towards four carcinogenic PAH metabolites being relatively similar in structure and genotoxic activity.