Enhanced Activity of Deoxycytidine Kinase After Pulsed Low Dose Rate and Single Dose Gamma Irradiation

In both pulsed low dose rate (LDR) and single high dose radiation schedules, gemcitabine pretreatment sensitizes tumor cells to radiation. These radiosensitizing effects could be the result of decreased DNA repair. In this study, the effect of irradiation on the deoxycytidine kinase (dCK) needed for DNA repair was investigated. The activity of dCK, a deoxynucleoside analogue-activating enzyme was increased upon irradiation in both schedules. No change in dCK protein expression was observed that indicates a post-translational regulation. The benefit of this increased activity induced by irradiation should be further investigated in combination with deoxynucleoside analogues activated by this enzyme.     

Modulation of human deoxycytidine kinase activity as a response to cellular stress induced by NaF.

Deoxycytidine kinase (dCK) is one of the key enzymes of deoxynucleoside salvage supplying resting lymphocytes with DNA precursors for synthesis and repair. The level of dCK activity is especially important in chemotherapy with the use of deoxynucleoside analogues like arabinosyl cytosine (Citarabid, ara-C), or 2-chloro-deoxyadenosine (Cladribine, CdA). Previous results showed that Cladribine treatment of human lymphocytes increased several fold the activity of dCK without increasing the amount of dCK protein itself (Sasvári-Székely, et al., 1998, Biochem. Pharmacol. 56, 1175), and a possible post-translational modification was suggested. This theory was further investigated using NaF as an inhibitor of protein phosphatases. It was shown that NaF treatment of cells elevated dCK activity while inhibiting DNA synthesis. The possible mechanism of dCK activation/inactivation induced by exposure of cell cultures to different agents is discussed.     

Selective increase of dATP pools upon activation of deoxycytidine kinase in lymphocytes: implications in apoptosis

Stimulation of the activity of deoxycytidine kinase (dCK), the principal deoxynucleoside salvage enzyme, has been recently considered as a protective cellular response to a wide range of agents interfering with DNA repair and apoptosis. In light of this, the potential contribution of dCK activation to apoptosis induction--presumably by supplying dATP or its analogues for the apoptosome formation--deserves consideration. Two-hour exposure of human tonsillar lymphocytes to 2-chloro-deoxyadenosine (CdA) led to a two-fold activation of dCK. This activation process was inhibited by pifithrin-alpha, a potent inhibitor of p53. When the dNTP pools were determined, both deoxypyrimidine triphosphate and dGTP pools were reduced after the treatments, while dATP levels elevated by 62%, 77% and 50% in the CdA, aphidicolin and etoposide-treated cells, respectively. We assume that dCK activation elicited by cellular damage might be a proapoptotic factor in terms of generating dATP well before the release of cytochrome c and deoxyguanosine kinase from mitochondria.     

Special function of deoxycytidine kinase (dCK) in the activation of chemotherapeutic nucleoside analogs and in the inhibition of cell proliferation

Deoxycytidine kinase (dCK) plays a central role in the deoxynucleoside salvage processes, phosphorylating dC, dA, and dG to their monophosphates. In mammalian cells, the major source of dTTP comes also from dC via dCMP deaminase. Moreover, based on its broad substrate specificity, this enzyme is responsible for the activation of several nucleoside analogues of therapeutical importance, influencing the sensitivity of malignant tissues towards chemotherapy. The expression of dCK is highest in different lymphoid cells/tissues, in embryonic cells and in most malignant cells (2, 7, 13-15, 18). The activity of dCK is not cell cycle-regulated. In contrast to this, dCK activity was found to be elevated several fold upon short-term treatments of normal human lymphocytes with therapeutic nucleoside analogs, and other genotoxic agents as well as by DNA damaging agents including the DNA polymerase inhibitor aphidicolin, the topoisomerase II inhibitor etoposide and gamma-irradiation, which might be a potentially important phenomenon with respect to the clinical practice, too. These findings indicated that the main trigger of activation could be the damaged DNA itself, and the biological relevance might be to supply the dNTPs for the enhanced DNA repair. Activation of dCK was paralleled by elevated levels of intracellular dATP, raising the possibility that dCK activation is linked to the induction of apoptosis. With regard to the mechanism of enzyme activation, no changes were found in the protein and mRNA levels of dCK upon stimulation, while the activation process was calcium dependent and comprised a protein phosphorylation step. A positive correlation was found between the enzymatic activity and the native immunoreactivity of dCK, strongly arguing that dCK undergoes a conformational change during activation, which results in the formation of a catalytically more active steric structure (8-11, 22, 26, 32-34, 35, 36).     

Selective Increase of dATP Pools upon Activation of Deoxycytidine Kinase in Lymphocytes: Implications in Apoptosis

Stimulation of the activity of deoxycytidine kinase (dCK), the principal deoxynucleoside salvage enzyme, has been recently considered as a protective cellular response to a wide range of agents interfering with DNA repair and apoptosis. In light of this, the potential contribution of dCK activation to apoptosis induction—presumably by supplying dATP or its analogues for the apoptosome formation—deserves consideration. Two‐hour exposure of human tonsillar lymphocytes to 2‐chloro‐deoxyadenosine (CdA) led to a two‐fold activation of dCK. This activation process was inhibited by pifithrin‐α, a potent inhibitor of p53. When the dNTP pools were determined, both deoxypyrimidine triphosphate and dGTP pools were reduced after the treatments, while dATP levels elevated by 62%, 77% and 50% in the CdA, aphidicolin and etoposide‐treated cells, respectively. We assume that dCK activation elicited by cellular damage might be a proapoptotic factor in terms of generating dATP well before the release of cytochrome c and deoxyguanosine kinase from mitochondria.     

Deoxycytidine Kinase Augments ATM-Mediated DNA Repair and Contributes to Radiation Resistance

Efficient and adequate generation of deoxyribonucleotides is critical to successful DNA repair. We show that ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) integrates the DNA damage response with DNA metabolism by regulating the salvage of deoxyribonucleosides. Specifically, ATM phosphorylates and activates deoxycytidine kinase (dCK) at serine 74 in response to ionizing radiation (IR). Activation of dCK shifts its substrate specificity toward deoxycytidine, increases intracellular dCTP pools post IR, and enhances the rate of DNA repair. Mutation of a single serine 74 residue has profound effects on murine T and B lymphocyte development, suggesting that post-translational regulation of dCK may be important in maintaining genomic stability during hematopoiesis. Using [¹⁸F]-FAC, a dCK-specific positron emission tomography (PET) probe, we visualized and quantified dCK activation in tumor xenografts after IR, indicating that dCK activation could serve as a biomarker for ATM function and DNA damage response in vivo. In addition, dCK-deficient leukemia cell lines and murine embryonic fibroblasts exhibited increased sensitivity to IR, indicating that pharmacologic inhibition of dCK may be an effective radiosensitization strategy.     

DNA repair defect in AT cells and their hypersensitivity to low-dose-rate radiation

Ataxia telangiectasia (AT) and normal cells immortalized with the human telomerase gene were irradiated in non-proliferative conditions with high- (2 Gy/min) or low-dose-rate (0.3 mGy/min) radiation. While normal cells showed a higher resistance after irradiation at a low dose rate than a high dose rate, AT cells showed virtually the same survival after low- and high-dose-rate irradiation. Although the frequency of micronuclei induced by low-dose-rate radiation was greatly reduced in normal cells, it was not reduced significantly in AT cells. The number of gamma-H2AX foci increased in proportion to the dose in both AT and normal cells after high-dose-rate irradiation. Although few gamma-H2AX foci were observed after low-dose-rate irradiation in normal cells, significant and dose-dependent numbers of gamma-H2AX foci were observed in AT cells even after low-dose-rate irradiation, indicating that DNA damage was not completely repaired during low-dose-rate irradiation. Significant phosphorylation of ATM proteins was detected in normal cells after low-dose-rate irradiation, suggesting that the activation of ATM plays an important role in the repair of DNA damage during low-dose-rate irradiation. In conclusion, AT cells may not be able to repair some fraction of DNA damage and are severely affected by low-dose-rate radiation.     

Radioprotective properties of ATP and modification of acid phosphatase response after a lethal dose of whole body p(66MeV)/Be neutron radiation to BALB/c mice.

The intraperitoneal administration of exogenous ATP prior to a lethal dose (7 Gy) of whole body neutron irradiation increased the radioresistance of BALB/c mice. This radiation used the beam from a neutron therapy facility produced by the reaction p(66 MeV)/Be. Survival of the mice, determined 7 days post-irradiation as the endpoint, was increased from 26% to 86% by the action of the exogenous ATP. Furthermore, the response of acid phosphatase activity as an indicator of the acute radiation effects showed a marked augmentation in both tissues studied, testes and small intestine. The activity of the enzyme after neutron irradiation with prior administration of ATP showed smaller increases when compared with the increases observed after neutron irradiation alone. This implies that exogenous ATP reduces the effect of the lytic enzyme and, hence, damage. Finally, changes were observed in the activity of acid phosphatase in the testes and intestine with different concentrations of exogenous ATP. In both tissues there was a monotonic decrease in the activity of the enzyme with increase of the concentration of exogenous ATP administrated before radiation. These results reflect the protective ability of exogenous ATP as an adaptive defence mechanism to reduce radiation damage in normal tissues after a lethal dose of neutron radiation.     

Cytotoxic activity of 2',2'-difluorodeoxycytidine, 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine and cytosine arabinoside in cells transduced with deoxycytidine kinase gene

Deoxycytidine nucleoside analogs must be first phosphorylated to become active anticancer drugs. The rate-limiting enzyme in this pathway is deoxycytidine kinase (dCK). Cells deficient in this enzyme are resistant to these analogs. To evaluate the potential of dCK to be used as suicide gene for deoxycytidine nucleoside analogs, we transduced both human A-549 lung carcinoma and murine NIH3T3 fibroblast cell lines with this gene. The dCK-transduced cells showed an increase in cytotoxicity to the analogs, cytosine arabinoside (ARA-C), and 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (5-AZA-CdR). Unexpectedly, the related analog, 2',2'-difluorodeoxycytidine (dFdC), was less cytotoxic to the dCK-transduced cells than the wild-type cells. For the A-549-dCK cells, the phosphorylation of dFdC by dCK was much greater than control cells. In accord with the elevated enzyme activity, we observed a 6-fold increased dFdC incorporation into DNA and a more pronounced inhibition of DNA synthesis in the A-549-dCK cells. In an attempt to clarify the mechanism of dFdC, we investigated its action on A549 and 3T3 cells transduced with both cytidine deaminase (CD) and dCK. We reported previously that overexpression of CD confers drug resistance to deoxycytidine analogs. In this study, when the CD-transduced cells were also transduced with dCK they became relatively more sensitive to dFdC. In addition, we observed that dFdU, the deaminated form of dFdC, was cytotoxic to the A-549-dCK cells, but not the wild-type cells. Our working hypothesis to explain these results is that the mitochondrial thymidine kinase (TK2), an enzyme reported to phosphorylate dFdC, acts as an important modulator of dFdC-induced cell toxicity. These findings may further clarify the action of dFdC and the mechanism by which it induces cell death.     

The effect of dose rate on X-radiation-induced mutant frequency and the nature of DNA lesions in mouse lymphoma L5178Y cells

The induction of mutants at the heterozygous tk locus by X radiation was found to be dose-rate dependent in L5178Y-R16 (LY-R16) cells, but very little dose-rate dependence was observed in the case of strain L5178Y-S1 (LY-S1), which is deficient in the repair of DNA double-strand breaks. Induction of mutants by X radiation at the hemizygous hprt locus was dose-rate independent for both strains. These results are in agreement with the hypothesis that the majority of X-radiation-induced TK-/- mutants harbor multilocus deletions caused by the interaction of damaged DNA sites. Repair of DNA lesions during low-dose-rate X irradiation would be expected to reduce the probability of lesion interaction. The results suggest that in contrast to the TK-/- mutants, the majority of mutations at the hprt locus in these strains of L5178Y cells are caused by single lesions subject to dose-rate-independent repair. The vast majority of the TK-/- mutants of strain LY-R16 showed loss of the entire active tk allele, whether the mutants arose spontaneously or were induced by high-dose-rate or low-dose-rate X irradiation. The proportion of TK-/- mutants with multilocus deletions (in which the products of both the tk gene and the closely linked gk gene were inactivated) was higher in the repair-deficient strain LY-S1 than in strain LY-R16. However, even though the mutant frequency decreased with dose rate, the proportion of mutants showing inactivation of both the tk and gk genes increased with a decrease in dose rate. The reason for these apparently conflicting results concerning the effect of DNA repair on the induction of extended lesions is under investigation.     

Reduction of spontaneous somatic mutation frequency by a low-dose X irradiation of Drosophila larvae and possible involvement of DNA single-strand damage repair

The third instar larvae of Drosophila were irradiated with X rays, and the somatic mutation frequency in their wings was measured after their eclosion. In the flies with normal DNA repair and apoptosis functions, 0.2 Gy irradiation at 0.05 Gy/min reduced the frequency of the so-called small spot (mutant cell clone with reduced reproductive activity) compared with that in the sham-irradiated flies. When apoptosis was suppressed using the baculovirus p35 gene, the small spot frequency increased four times in the sham-irradiated control group, but the reduction by the 0.2-Gy irradiation was still evident. In a non-homologous end joining-deficient mutant, the small spot frequency was also reduced by 0.2 Gy radiation. In a mutant deficient in single-strand break repair, no reduction in the small spot frequency by 0.2 Gy radiation was observed, and the small spot frequency increased with the radiation dose. Large spot (mutant cell clone with normal reproductive activity) frequency was not affected by suppression of apoptosis and increased monotonically with radiation dose in wild-type larvae and in mutants for single- or double-strand break repair. It is hypothesized that some of the small spots resulted from single-strand damage and, in wild-type larvae, 0.2 Gy radiation activated the normal single-strand break repair gene, which reduced the background somatic mutation frequency.     

Alterations in monoamine oxidase activity of the mouse brain and liver after mixed neutron-gamma irradiation

Monoamine oxidase (MAO) plays an important role in the metabolism of neuro-transmitter biogenic amines. Its activity was determined in mouse brain and liver after exposure to different kinds of ionizing radiation and after pretreatment with a radioprotective agent. After a lethal dose of mixed neutron-gamma irradiation the MAO activity decreased in the brain and increased in the liver. In contrast, after a lethal dose of 60Co-gamma irradiation enzyme activity was considerably increased in the brain while in the liver it increased like after mixed neutron-gamma irradiation. AET (S2-aminoethyl-isothiuronium-Br X HBr), when administered in a radio-protective dose, inhibited MAO activity in the brain, while it increased in the liver. Even more marked changes of enzyme activity were observed in both brain and liver after AET pretreatment and mixed neutron-gamma irradiation. On the basis of the results it is suggested that different kinds of ionizing radiation lead to different types of lipid peroxidation in the lipid environment surrounding MAO, an event leading to altered enzyme activity. AET itself inhibited MAO in the brain and increased the activity in the liver but did not prevent the alterations caused by ionizing radiation in enzyme activity.     

In vitro repair of UV-or X-irradiated bacteriophage T4 DNA by extract from blue-green alga Anacystis nidulans

The cell-free extract from blue-green alga Anacystis nidulans contains enzymatic activities which repair in vitro transforming DNA of bacteriophage T4 damaged by UV light or X-rays. The repair effect of the extract was observed with double-stranded irradiated DNA but not with denatured irradiated DNA. The level of restoration of the transforming activity depends on the protein concentration in the reaction mixture and on the dose of irradiation. A fraction of DNA lesions induced by X-rays is repaired by a NAD-dependent polynucleotide ligase present in the extract. The repair of UV-induced lesions is the most efficient in the presence of magnesium ions, NAD, ATP and the four deoxynucleoside triphosphates. The results indicate that the repair of UV-irradiated DNA is performed with the participation of DNA polymerase and polynucleotide ligase which function in the cell-free extract of the algae on the background of a low deoxyribonuclease activity.Abbreviations UV ultraviolet - TA transforming activity - PN-ligase polynucleotide ligase - NAD nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide - dNTP deoxynucleoside triphosphates - dATP, dGTP, dTTP triphosphates of deoxyadenosine, deoxyguanosine, deoxythymidine and deoxycytidine, respectively     

Exposure to low dose of gamma radiation enhances the excision repair in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The effect of low doses of ionizing and nonionizing radiation on the radiation response of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae toward ionizing and nonionizing radiation was studied. The wild-type strain D273-10B on exposure to 54 Gy gamma radiation (resulting in about 10% cell killing) showed enhanced resistance to subsequent exposure to UV radiation. This induced UV resistance increased with the incubation time between the initial gamma radiation stress and the UV irradiation. Exposure to low doses of UV light on the other hand showed no change in gamma or UV radiation response of this strain. The strains carrying a mutation at rad52 behaved in a way similar to the wild type, but with slightly reduced induced response. In contrast to this, the rad3 mutants, defective in excision repair, showed no induced UV resistance. Removal of UV-induced pyrimidine dimers in wild-type yeast DNA after UV irradiation was examined by analyzing the sites recognized by UV endonuclease from Micrococcus luteus. The samples that were exposed to low doses of gamma radiation before UV irradiation were able to repair the pyrimidine dimers more efficiently than the samples in which low gamma irradiation was omitted. The nature of enhanced repair was studied by scoring the frequency of induced gene conversion and reverse mutation at trp and ilv loci respectively in strain D7, which showed similar enhanced UV resistance induced by low-dose gamma irradiation. The induced repair was found to be essentially error-free. These results suggest that irradiation of strain D273-10B with low doses of gamma radiation enhances its capability for excision repair of UV-induced pyrimidine dimers.     

Comparison of survival and DNA double strand breaks for mild hyperthermia and low dose rate/pulsed low dose rate irradiation in human cells

Long duration mild hyperthermia (LDMH) has been shown to be an effective radiosensitizer when combined with low dose rate irradiation and pulsed low dose rate irradiation. These protocols are being investigated to determine if these effects can be related to DNA double strand breakage (dsb). In our studies we used human melanoma (SK mel-3) and fibroblasts (AG1522). A low dose rate was given at 0.88 cGy/min while pulsed doses were given at 150 cGy/min. Our results showed that the degree of thermal radiosensitization (TER) increased as the average dose rate decreased. This was seen for both the survival endpoints and the degree of DNA strand breaks. There was a very good correlation between the TER and the degree of DNA strand breaks.In conclusion our data show that LDMH is an effective radiosensitizer for both LDR and PSLDR and this may also be an effective clinical protocol. The quantity of DNA dsb's appears to be related to TER and may be predictive of the degree of radiosensitization.     

Direct Enzymatic Repair of Deoxyribonucleic Acid Single-Strand Breaks in Dormant Spores

With the alkaline sucrose gradient centrifugation method, it was found that dormant spores of Clostridium botulinum subjected to 300 krads of gamma radiation showed a distinct decrease in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) fragment size, indicating induction of single-strand breaks (SSB). A two- to threefold difference in radiation resistance of spores of two strains of C. botulinum, 33A (37% survival dose [D(37)] = 110 krads) and 51B (D(37) = 47 krads), was accompanied by relatively larger DNA fragments (molecular weight 7.9 x 10(7)) obtained during extraction from the radiation-resistant strain 33A and smaller DNA fragments (molecular weight 1.8 x 10(7)) obtained under identical conditions from radiation-sensitive strain 51B. The apparent number of DNA SSB produced by 300 krads in strains 33A and 51B was 0.37 and 3.50, respectively, per 10(8) daltons of DNA. Addition of 0.02 M ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) to spore suspensions during irradiation doubled the apparent number of SSB in strain 33A but had no effect on strain 51B. In vivo, 0.02 M EDTA present during irradiation to 100 to 300 krads decreased survival of spores of 33A by about 30% but had little or no effect on 51B. Survival of 33A was also reduced by about 45% when the spores were irradiated while frozen in dry ice (-75 C) and, after irradiation, immediately exposed to 0.03 M EDTA for 1 h to inhibit repair in the dormant spores. These results suggest that the highly radiation-resistant strain 33A may be able to accomplish repair of SSB during irradiation or after irradiation under nonphysiological conditions, i.e., in the dormant state. This repair can be inhibited by EDTA. Sedimentation patterns show that DNA from spores of both strains 33A and 51B did not show any postirradiation repair during the first 6 h of germination, as opposed to Bacillus subtilis spores, which exhibit repair immediately after germination. These observations suggest the existence of direct repair in physiological dormant spores of strain 33A in the cryptobiotic resting state in the absence of germination. The repair seems to be similar to that of polynucleotide ligase activity shown to be operative in some vegetative cells. Apparently radiation-sensitive strains such as 51B and B. subtilis are generally poor in DNA repair enzyme activity under conditions of spore dormancy, which may account for the approximately threefold difference in radiation sensitivity or DNA fragility of different strains, or both.     

Optimization and evaluation of electroporation delivery of siRNA in the human leukemic CEM cell line

In order to study nucleoside analog activation in the CEM cell line, a transfection protocol had to be optimized in order to silence an enzyme involved in nucleoside analog activation. Hematopoetic cell lines can be difficult to transfect with traditional lipid-based transfection, so the electroporation technique was used. Field strength, pulse length, temperature, electroporation media, siRNA concentration, among other conditions were tested in order to obtain approximately 70–80% mRNA and enzyme activity downregulation of the cytosolic enzyme deoxycytidine kinase (dCK), necessary for nucleoside analog activation. Downregulation was assessed at mRNA and enzyme activity levels. After optimizing the protocol, a microarray analysis was performed in order to investigate whether the downregulation was specific. Additionally two genes were differentially expressed besides the downregulation of dCK. These were however of unknown function. The leakage of intracellular nucleotides was also addressed in the electroporated cells since it can affect the DNA repair mechansism and the efficiency of nucleoside analogs. Three of these pools were increased compared to untreated, unelectroporated cells. The siRNA transfected cells with reduced dCK expression and activity showed reduced sensitivity to several nucleoside analogs as expected. The multidrug resistance to other drugs, as seen in nucleoside analog-induced resistant cells, was not seen with this model.     

Metabolic correction of cerebral radiation syndrome.

DNA strand breaks that occur after irradiation activate the repair enzyme adenosine diphosphoribosyl transferase, which consumes NAD as a substrate and causes depletion first of neuronal NAD and then of the ATP pool. This is considered to be the crucial link in the mechanism underlying the cerebral radiation syndrome (CRS). In this study, two ways to correct the CRS metabolically were examined: (a) prevention of depletion of NAD after irradiation by administration of the enzyme inhibitor nicotinamide and (b) shunting the NAD-dependent oxidative phosphorylation pathway of ATP resynthesis by administration of a substrate of NAD-independent oxidation, succinate. Cerebral lesions induced by radiation were modeled by irradiation of rats or rat brain homogenates with 150 Gy of X rays. The manifestations of CRS in rats (excitement, convulsions, etc.) closely resembled those seen after acute hypoxia. In brain homogenates, pyruvate tetrazolium-reductase activity decreased after irradiation and could be corrected by addition of NAD after irradiation. Succinate tetrazolium-reductase activity was not affected by irradiation. Oxygen consumption by brain homogenates after irradiation in vitro and in situ decreased, as did oxygen consumption by rats in vivo after cranio-caudal irradiation. Administration of nicotinamide or succinate prevented both the postirradiation decrease in respiration (in both rats in vivo and brain homogenates in vitro) and the development of cerebral radiation syndrome. These results help to clarify the mechanisms underlying CRS and its metabolic correction.     

Deoxycytidine kinase regulates the G2/M checkpoint through interaction with cyclin-dependent kinase 1 in response to DNA damage

Deoxycytidine kinase (dCK) is a rate limiting enzyme critical for phosphorylation of endogenous deoxynucleosides for DNA synthesis and exogenous nucleoside analogues for anticancer and antiviral drug actions. dCK is activated in response to DNA damage; however, how it functions in the DNA damage response is largely unknown. Here, we report that dCK is required for the G2/M checkpoint in response to DNA damage induced by ionizing radiation (IR). We demonstrate that the ataxia–telangiectasia-mutated (ATM) kinase phosphorylates dCK on Serine 74 to activate it in response to DNA damage. We further demonstrate that Serine 74 phosphorylation is required for initiation of the G2/M checkpoint. Using mass spectrometry, we identified a protein complex associated with dCK in response to DNA damage. We demonstrate that dCK interacts with cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (Cdk1) after IR and that the interaction inhibits Cdk1 activity both in vitro and in vivo. Together, our results highlight the novel function of dCK and provide molecular insights into the G2/M checkpoint regulation in response to DNA damage.     

Specific inhibition of DNA polymerase beta by its 14 kDa domain: role of single- and double-stranded DNA binding and 5'-phosphate recognition.

DNA polymerase beta (beta-polymerase) has been implicated in short-patch DNA synthesis in the DNA repair pathway known as base excision repair. The native 39 kDa enzyme is organized into four structurally and functionally distinct domains. In an effort to examine this enzyme as a potential therapeutic target, we analyzed the effect of various beta-polymerase domains on the activity of the enzyme in vitro. We show that the 14 kDa N-terminal segment of beta-polymerase, which binds to both single- and double-stranded DNA, but lacks DNA polymerase activity, inhibits beta-polymerase activity in vitro. Most importantly, the 8, 27 and 31 kDa domains of beta-polymerase do not inhibit beta-polymerase activity, demonstrating that the inhibition by the 14 kDa domain is specific. The inhibition of beta-polymerase activity in vitro is abolished by increasing the concentrations of both of the substrates (template-primer and deoxynucleoside triphosphate). In contrast, an in vitro base excision repair assay is inhibited in a domain specific manner by the 14 kDa domain even in the presence of saturating substrates. The inhibition of beta-polymerase activity by the 14 kDa domain appears specific to beta-polymerase as this domain does not inhibit either mammalian DNA polymerase alpha or Escherichia coli polymerase I (Klenow fragment). These data suggest that the 14 kDa domain could be used as a potential inhibitor of intracellular beta-polymerase and that it may provide a means for sensitizing cells to therapeutically relevant DNA damaging agents.