BER, MGMT, and MMR in defense against alkylation-induced genotoxicity and apoptosis.

Methylating carcinogens and cytostatic drugs induce different methylation products in DNA. In cells not expressing the repair protein MGMT or expressing it at a low level, O6-methylguanine is the major genotoxic, recombinogenic, and apoptotic lesion. Genotoxicity and apoptosis triggered by O6-methylguanine require mismatch repair (MMR). In cells expressing O6-methylguanine-DNA methyl transferase (MGMT) at a high level or for agents producing low amounts of O6-methylguanine, N-alkylations become the major genotoxic lesions. N-Alkylations are repaired by base excision repair (BER). In mammalian cells, naturally occurring mutants of BER have not been detected, which points to the importance of BER for viability. In order to ascertain the role of BER in cellular defense, BER was modulated either by transfection or mutational inactivation. It has been shown that overexpression of N-methylpurine-DNA glycosylase (MPG) does not protect, but rather sensitizes cells to SN2 agents. This has been interpreted in terms of an imbalance in BER. Regarding abasic site endonuclease (APE), transient but not stable overexpression of the enzyme was achieved upon transfection in CHO cells, which indicates that unphysiologic APE levels are not tolerated by the cell. Besides the repair function, APE (alias Ref-1) exerts redox capability by which the activity of various transcription factors is modulated. Therefore, it is possible that stable overexpression of mammalian APE impairs transcriptional regulation of genes, whereas transient overexpression may exert some protective effect. DNA polymerase beta (Pol beta) transfection was ineffective in conferring resistance to methylmethane sulfonate (MMS). On the other hand, Pol beta-deficient cells proved to be highly sensitive to methylation-induced chromosomal aberrations and reproductive cell death. The dramatic hypersensitivity in the killing response is largely due to induction of apoptosis. Obviously, nonrepaired BER intermediates are clastogenic and act as a strong trigger of the apoptotic pathway. The elements of this pathway are currently under investigation.