The well known biomarker of oxidative stress, 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanine, is more susceptible to further oxidation than the parent guanine base and can be oxidatively transformed to the genotoxic spiroiminodihydantoin (Sp) and 5-guanidinohydantoin (Gh) lesions. Incubation of 135-mer duplexes with single Sp or Gh lesions in human cell extracts yields a characteristic nucleotide excision repair (NER)-induced ladder of short dual incision oligonucleotide fragments in addition to base excision repair (BER) incision products. The ladders were not observed when NER was inhibited either by mouse monoclonal antibody (5F12) to human XPA or in XPC ؊/؊ fibroblast cell extracts. The overproduction of free radical intermediates and electrophiles by macrophages and neutrophils activated during the inflammatory response in chronically inflamed tissues induces persistent damage to cellular DNA (1). If not properly repaired, this DNA damage can increase levels of mutations and genomic instability and eventually can lead to the initiation of human cancers (2-4). The primary target of oxidatively generated DNA damage is guanine (5), the most easily oxidizable natural nucleic acid base (6). The best known oxidation product of guanine is 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanine (8-oxoG), 3 which is ubiquitous in cellular DNA and is used widely as a biomarker of oxidative stress (7). The 8-oxoG lesion is genotoxic, and failure to remove 8-oxoG before replication induces G:C 3 T:A transversion mutations (8). This lesion is even more easily oxidized than the parent base guanine (9), and its further oxidation by various oxidizing agents, including peroxynitrite, leads to the formation of stereoisomeric spiroiminodihydantoin (Sp) and 5-guanidinohydantoin (Gh) lesions (10 -15). In the case of guanine oxidation by peroxynitrite, the 5-guanidino-4-nitroimidazole (NIm) lesion (16 -18) is also produced and can serve as a biomarker of inflammation-related oxidation mechanisms (1). The NIm lesions together with the easily depurinated 8-nitroguanine, are typical products of guanine damage in calf thymus DNA induced by reactions with nitrosoperoxycarbonate (16, 19) derived from the combination of carbon dioxide and peroxynitrite (20). The structures of these oxidatively generated guanine lesions are shown in Fig. 1A.The chiral carbons in the Gh and Sp nucleobases give rise to a pair of R and S diastereomers. Oligonucleotides that contain single, site-specifically inserted Gh or Sp lesions can be separated and purified by anion-exchange HPLC methods (21). In aqueous solutions, the Gh diastereomers are easily interconvertible, and it is, therefore, not feasible to study their characteristics individually (22). In contrast, the Sp-S and Sp-R diastereomers are chemically stable and can be purified and studied individually (10,23). NMR structural studies in solution indicate that both stereoisomerically distinct Sp lesions (24) perturb adjacent base pairs and thus thermodynamically destabilize oligonucleotide duplexes (25). Molecular modeling studies indicate that the ...