Initiation of 8-oxoguanine base excision repair within trinucleotide tandem repeats

Modifiers of CAG/CTG Repeat Instability: Insights from Mammalian Models

At fifteen different genomic locations, the expansion of a CAG/CTG repeat causes a neurodegenerative or neuromuscular disease, the most common being Huntington's disease and myotonic dystrophy type 1. These disorders are characterized by germline and somatic instability of the causative CAG/CTG repeat mutations. Repeat lengthening, or expansion, in the germline leads to an earlier age of onset or more severe symptoms in the next generation. In somatic cells, repeat expansion is thought to precipitate the rate of disease. The mechanisms underlying repeat instability are not well understood. Here we review the mammalian model systems that have been used to study CAG/CTG repeat instability, and the modifiers identified in these systems. Mouse models have demonstrated prominent roles for proteins in the mismatch repair pathway as critical drivers of CAG/CTG instability, which is also suggested by recent genome-wide association studies in humans. We draw attention to a network of connections between modifiers identified across several systems that might indicate pathway crosstalk in the context of repeat instability, and which could provide hypotheses for further validation or discovery. Overall, the data indicate that repeat dynamics might be modulated by altering the levels of DNA metabolic proteins, their regulation, their interaction with chromatin, or by direct perturbation of the repeat tract. Applying novel methodologies and technologies to this exciting area of research will be needed to gain deeper mechanistic insight that can be harnessed for therapies aimed at preventing repeat expansion or promoting repeat contraction.

An oxidized abasic lesion inhibits base excision repair leading to DNA strand breaks in a trinucleotide repeat tract

Oxidative DNA damage and base excision repair (BER) play important roles in modulating trinucleotide repeat (TNR) instability that is associated with human neurodegenerative diseases and cancer. We have reported that BER of base lesions can lead to TNR instability. However, it is unknown if modifications of the sugar in an abasic lesion modulate TNR instability. In this study, we characterized the effects of the oxidized sugar, 5’-(2-phosphoryl-1,4-dioxobutane)(DOB) in CAG repeat tracts on the activities of key BER enzymes, as well as on repeat instability. We found that DOB crosslinked with DNA polymerase β and inhibited its synthesis activity in CAG repeat tracts. Surprisingly, we found that DOB also formed crosslinks with DNA ligase I and inhibited its ligation activity, thereby reducing the efficiency of BER. This subsequently resulted in the accumulation of DNA strand breaks in a CAG repeat tract. Our study provides important new insights into the adverse effects of an oxidized abasic lesion on BER and suggests a potential alternate repair pathway through which an oxidized abasic lesion may modulate TNR instability.

APE1 incision activity at abasic sites in tandem repeat sequences

Repetitive DNA sequences, such as those present in microsatellites and minisatellites, telomeres, and trinucleotide repeats (linked to fragile X syndrome, Huntington disease, etc.), account for nearly 30% of the human genome. These domains exhibit enhanced susceptibility to oxidative attack to yield base modifications, strand breaks, and abasic sites; have a propensity to adopt non-canonical DNA forms modulated by the positions of the lesions; and, when not properly processed, can contribute to genome instability that underlies aging and disease development. Knowledge on the repair efficiencies of DNA damage within such repetitive sequences is therefore crucial for understanding the impact of such domains on genomic integrity. In the present study, using strategically designed oligonucleotide substrates, we determined the ability of human apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 (APE1) to cleave at apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP) sites in a collection of tandem DNA repeat landscapes involving telomeric and CAG/CTG repeat sequences. Our studies reveal the differential influence of domain sequence, conformation, and AP site location/relative positioning on the efficiency of APE1 binding and strand incision. Intriguingly, our data demonstrate that APE1 endonuclease efficiency correlates with the thermodynamic stability of the DNA substrate. We discuss how these results have both predictive and mechanistic consequences for understanding the success and failure of repair protein activity associated with such oxidatively sensitive, conformationally plastic/dynamic repetitive DNA domains.

Modulation of base excision repair of 8-oxoguanine by the nucleotide sequence

8-Oxoguanine (8-oxoG) is a major product of oxidative DNA damage, which induces replication errors and interferes with transcription. By varying the position of single 8-oxoG in a functional gene and manipulating the nucleotide sequence surrounding the lesion, we found that the degree of transcriptional inhibition is independent of the distance from the transcription start or the localization within the transcribed or the non-transcribed DNA strand. However, it is strongly dependent on the sequence context and also proportional to cellular expression of 8-oxoguanine DNA glycosylase (OGG1)-demonstrating that transcriptional arrest does not take place at unrepaired 8-oxoG and proving a causal connection between 8-oxoG excision and the inhibition of transcription. We identified the 5'-CAGGGC[8-oxoG]GACTG-3' motif as having only minimal transcription-inhibitory potential in cells, based on which we predicted that 8-oxoG excision is particularly inefficient in this sequence context. This anticipation was fully confirmed by direct biochemical assays. Furthermore, in DNA containing a bistranded Cp[8-oxoG]/Cp[8-oxoG] clustered lesion, the excision rates differed between the two strands at least by a factor of 9, clearly demonstrating that the excision preference is defined by the DNA strand asymmetry rather than the overall geometry of the double helix or local duplex stability.

DNA repair mechanisms in Huntington's disease

The human genome is under continuous attack by a plethora of harmful agents. Without the development of several dedicated DNA repair pathways, the genome would have been destroyed and cell death, inevitable. However, while DNA repair enzymes generally maintain the integrity of the whole genome by properly repairing mutagenic and cytotoxic intermediates, there are cases in which the DNA repair machinery is implicated in causing disease rather than protecting against it. One case is the instability of gene-specific trinucleotides, the causative mutations of numerous disorders including Huntington's disease. The DNA repair proteins induce mutations that are different from the genome-wide mutations that arise in the absence of repair enzymes; they occur at definite loci, they occur in specific tissues during development, and they are age-dependent. These latter characteristics make pluripotent stem cells a suitable model system for triplet repeat expansion disorders. Pluripotent stem cells can be kept in culture for a prolonged period of time and can easily be differentiated into any tissue, e.g., cells along the neural lineage. Here, we review the role of DNA repair proteins in the process of triplet repeat instability in Huntington's disease and also the potential use of pluripotent stem cells to investigate neurodegenerative disorders.