A key modality of non-surgical cancer management is DNA damaging therapy that causes DNA double-strand breaks that are preferentially toxic to rapidly dividing cancer cells. Double-strand break repair capacity is recognized as an important mechanism in drug resistance and is therefore a potential target for adjuvant chemotherapy. Additionally, spontaneous and environmentally induced DSBs are known to promote cancer, making DSB evaluation important as a tool in epidemiology, clinical evaluation and in the development of novel pharmaceuticals. Currently available assays to detect double-strand breaks are limited in throughput and specificity and offer minimal information concerning the kinetics of repair. Here, we present the CometChip, a 96-well platform that enables assessment of double-strand break levels and repair capacity of multiple cell types and conditions in parallel and integrates with standard high-throughput screening and analysis technologies. We demonstrate the ability to detect multiple genetic deficiencies in double-strand break repair and evaluate a set of clinically relevant chemical inhibitors of one of the major double-strand break repair pathways, non-homologous end-joining. While other high-throughput repair assays measure residual damage or indirect markers of damage, the CometChip detects physical double-strand breaks, providing direct measurement of damage induction and repair capacity, which may be useful in developing and implementing treatment strategies with reduced side effects.
Background: In the event of a nuclear accident, people are exposed to elevated levels of continuous low dose-rate radiation. Nevertheless, most of the literature describes the biological effects of acute radiation.Objectives: DNA damage and mutations are well established for their carcinogenic effects. We assessed several key markers of DNA damage and DNA damage responses in mice exposed to low dose-rate radiation to reveal potential genotoxic effects associated with low dose-rate radiation.Methods: We studied low dose-rate radiation using a variable low dose-rate irradiator consisting of flood phantoms filled with 125Iodine-containing buffer. Mice were exposed to 0.0002 cGy/min (~ 400-fold background radiation) continuously over 5 weeks. We assessed base lesions, micronuclei, homologous recombination (HR; using fluorescent yellow direct repeat mice), and transcript levels for several radiation-sensitive genes.Results: We did not observe any changes in the levels of the DNA nucleobase damage products hypoxanthine, 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanine, 1,N6-ethenoadenine, or 3,N4-ethenocytosine above background levels under low dose-rate conditions. The micronucleus assay revealed no evidence that low dose-rate radiation induced DNA fragmentation, and there was no evidence of double strand break–induced HR. Furthermore, low dose-rate radiation did not induce Cdkn1a, Gadd45a, Mdm2, Atm, or Dbd2. Importantly, the same total dose, when delivered acutely, induced micronuclei and transcriptional responses.Conclusions: These results demonstrate in an in vivo animal model that lowering the dose-rate suppresses the potentially deleterious impact of radiation and calls attention to the need for a deeper understanding of the biological impact of low dose-rate radiation.
Inflammation associated reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONs), including peroxynitrite (ONOO−) and nitric oxide (NO· ), create base lesions that potentially play a role in the toxicity and large-scale genomic rearrangements associated with many malignancies. Nevertheless, little is known about the functional role of base excision repair (BER) deficiencies following exposure to RONs. Here, we explore the role of XRCC1 in modulating the levels of RONs-induced genotoxicity. XRCC1 is a scaffold protein critical for BER for which polymorphisms modulate the risk of cancer. We exploited CHO and human glioblastoma cell lines engineered to carry varied levels of BER components to study XRCC1. Cytotoxicity and SSB-intermediate levels were evaluated following exposure to the ONOO− donor, SIN-1, and to gaseous NO·. XRCC1 null cells are slightly more sensitive to SIN-1 toxicity. To explore the potential importance of XRCC1 in response to NO· -induced lesions, we used small-scale bioreactors to expose cells to NO· and found that XRCC1 does not impact genotoxicity in CHO cells, suggesting a minimal role for XRCC1 in response to RONs. However, using a molecular beacon assay to measure AAG-mediated lesion removal in vitro, we found that XRCC1 facilitates AAG-initiated BER of two key NO· -induced lesions: 1,N6-ethenoadenine and hypoxanthine. Furthermore, overexpression of AAG rendered XRCC1 cells sensitive to NO· -induced DNA damage and toxicity. These results show that AAG is a key glycosylase in response to NO· exposure and that the cellular and functional impact of XRCC1 depends upon the level of AAG. These studies are some of the first to assess the functional role of XRCC1 in response to NO·, and demonstrate the importance of BER balance when considering the impact of XRCC1 polymorphisms in response to RONs.
Characterization of the direct effects of DNA-damaging agents shows how DNA lesions lead to specific mutations. Yet, serum from Hiroshima survivors, Chernobyl liquidators and radiotherapy patients can induce a clastogenic effect on naive cells, showing indirect induction of genomic instability that persists years after exposure. Such indirect effects are not restricted to ionizing radiation, as chemical genotoxins also induce heritable and transmissible genomic instability phenotypes. Although such indirect induction of genomic instability is well described, the underlying mechanism has remained enigmatic. Here, we show that mouse embryonic stem cells exposed to c-radiation bear the effects of the insult for weeks. Specifically, conditioned media from the progeny of exposed cells can induce DNA damage and homologous recombination in naive cells. Notably, cells exposed to conditioned media also elicit a genome-destabilizing effect on their neighbouring cells, thus demonstrating transmission of genomic instability. Moreover, we show that the underlying basis for the memory of an insult is completely dependent on two of the major DNA cytosine methyltransferases, Dnmt1 and Dnmt3a. Targeted disruption of these genes in exposed cells completely eliminates transmission of genomic instability. Furthermore, transient inactivation of Dnmt1, using a tet-suppressible allele, clears the memory of the insult, thus protecting neighbouring cells from indirect induction of genomic instability. We have thus demonstrated that a single exposure can lead to long-term, genome-destabilizing effects that spread from cell to cell, and we provide a specific molecular mechanism for these persistent bystander effects. Collectively, our results impact the current understanding of risks from toxin exposures and suggest modes of intervention for suppressing genomic instability in people exposed to carcinogenic genotoxins.
Characterization of the direct effects of DNA damaging agents shows how DNA lesions lead to specific mutations. Yet, serum from Hiroshima survivors, Chernobyl liquidators, and radiotherapy patients can induce a clastogenic effect on naive cells, showing indirect induction of genomic instability that persists years after exposure. Such indirect effects are not restricted to ionizing radiation, as a chemical genotoxin induces a heritable and transmissible genomic instability phenotype. While such indirect induction of genomic instability is well described, the underlying mechanism has remained enigmatic. Here, we show that mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells exposed to γ-radiation remember the insult for weeks. Specifically, conditioned media from progeny of exposed cells can induce DNA damage and homologous recombination in naive cells. Notably, cells exposed to conditioned media also elicit a genome destabilizing effect on their neighbours, thus demonstrating transmission of genomic instability. Moreover, we show that the underlying basis for the memory of an insult is completely dependent on two of the major DNA cytosine methyltransferases (MTases), Dnmt1 and Dnmt3a. Targeted disruption of these genes completely eliminates transmission of genomic instability. Furthermore, transient inactivation of Dnmt1, using a tet-suppressible allele, clears the memory of the insult, thus protecting neighbouring cells from indirect induction of genomic instability. We have therefore shown that a single exposure can lead to long-term genome destabilizing effects that spread from cell to cell, and we provide a specific molecular mechanism for these persistent bystander effects. Collectively, our results impact current understanding of risks from toxin exposures and suggest specific mechanisms for suppressing genomic instability in people exposed to carcinogenic genotoxins. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 171.
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