XPA versus ERCC1 as chemosensitising agents to cisplatin and mitomycin C in prostate cancer cells: role of ERCC1 in homologous recombination repair.

Nucleotide excision repair is the principal mechanism for the removal of bulky DNA adducts caused by a range of chemotherapeutic drugs, and contributes to cisplatin resistance. In this study, we used synthetic siRNAs targeted to XPA and ERCC1 and compared their effectiveness in sensitising mismatch repair deficient prostate cancer cell lines to cisplatin and mitomycin C. Downregulation of ERCC1 sensitised DU145 and PC3 cells to cisplatin and mitomycin C.

Regulation of DNA repair gene expression in human cancer cell lines.

Although most advanced cancers are incurable, the majority of testicular germ cell tumors can be cured using cisplatin-based combination chemotherapy. The nucleotide excision repair (NER) pathway removes most DNA adducts produced by cisplatin, and the low levels of NER in testis tumor cells may explain why these cancers are curable. Three NER proteins: ERCC1, XPF, and XPA, are present at low levels in testis tumor cell lines, and addition of these proteins to protein extracts of testis tumor cells increases their in vitro DNA repair capacity to normal levels.

Sequence-selective interaction of the minor-groove interstrand cross-linking agent SJG-136 with naked and cellular DNA: footprinting and enzyme inhibition studies.

SJG-136 (3) is a novel pyrrolobenzodiazepine (PBD) dimer that is predicted from molecular models to bind in the minor groove of DNA and to form sequence-selective interstrand cross-links at 5'-Pu-GATC-Py-3' (Pu = purine; Py = pyrimidine) sites through covalent bonding between each PBD unit and guanines on opposing strands. Footprinting studies have confirmed that high-affinity adducts do form at 5'-G-GATC-C-3' sequences and that these can inhibit RNA polymerase in a sequence-selective manner. At higher concentrations of SJG-136, bands that migrate more slowly than one of the 5'-G-GATC-C-3' footprint sites show significantly reduced intensity, concomitant with the appearance of higher molecular weight material near the gel origin.

PCR-based methods for detecting DNA damage and its repair at the sub-gene and single nucleotide levels in cells.

Three PCR-based methods are described that allow covalent drug-DNA adducts, and their repair, to be studied at various levels of resolution from gene regions to the individual nucleotide level in single copy genes. A quantitative PCR (QPCR) method measures the total damage on both DNA strands in a gene region, usually between 300 and 3,000 base pairs in length. Strand-specific QPCR incorporates adaptations that allow damage to be measured in the same region as QPCR but in a strand-specific manner.