Alkylating agent hypersensitivity in poly(adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase deficient cell lines.

Starting with the V79 cell line, two poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase deficient mutants, designated ADPRT 54 and ADPRT 351, had been shown to be hypersensitive to x- and UV-irradiation and to topoisomerase I inhibitors but to be resistant to topoisomerase II inhibitors (Chatterjee, S.; Cheng, M. F.; Berger, N. A. Hypersensitivity to clinically useful alkylating agents and radiation in poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-deficient cell lines. Cancer Commun. 2:401-407;1990). We now report that these mutants were hypersensitive to a series of different alkylating agents, including alkylsufonates, alkylnitrosoureas, and nitrosoguanidine. In addition, they were hypersensitive to the UV-mimetic agent 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide. Our findings provide strong evidence that poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase was involved in the repair of alkylating agent induced DNA damage as well as in the damage induced by UV- and x-irradiation and radiomimetic agents. The poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase deficient cell lines showed a marked decrease in the shoulder region of their survival curves, suggesting that poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase was involved in the repair of alkylating agent induced sublethal damage.