Repair of the Major Lesion Resulting from C5′-Oxidation of DNA

Oxidation of the C5′-position of DNA results in direct strand scission. The 3′-fragments produced contain DNA lesions at their 5′-termini. The major DNA lesion contains an aldehyde at its C5′-position, but its nucleobase is unmodified. Excision of the lesion formed from oxidation of thymidine (T-al) is achieved by strand displacement synthesis by DNA polymerase β (Pol β) in the presence or absence of flap endonuclease 1 (FEN1). Pol β displaces T-al and thymidine with comparable efficiency, but less so than a chemically stabilized abasic site analogue (F). FEN1 cleaves the flaps produced during strand displacement synthesis that are two nucleotides or longer. A ternary complex containing T-al is also a substrate for the bacterial UvrABC nucleotide excision repair system. The sites of strand scission are identical in ternary complexes containing T-al, thymidine, or F. UvrABC incision efficiency of these ternary complexes is comparable as well but significantly slower than a duplex substrate containing a bulky substituted thymidine. However, cleavage occurs only on the 5′-fragment and does not remove the lesion. These data suggest that unlike many lesions the redundant nature of base excision and nucleotide excision repair systems does not provide a means for removing the major damage product produced by agents that oxidize the C5′-position. This may contribute to the high cytotoxicity of drugs that oxidize the C5′-position in DNA.