Publications by authors named "Gerald E Wuenschell"

Cancers that exhibit the Warburg effect may elevate expression of glyoxylase 1 (GLO1) to detoxify the toxic glycolytic byproduct methylglyoxal (MG) and inhibit the formation of pro-apoptotic advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs). Inhibition of GLO1 in cancers that up-regulate glycolysis has been proposed as a therapeutic targeting strategy, but this approach has not been evaluated for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most aggressive and difficult to treat malignancy of the brain. Elevated GLO1 expression in GBM was established in patient tumors and cell lines using bioinformatics tools and biochemical approaches.

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Methylglyoxal (MG) is a highly reactive electrophile produced endogenously as a byproduct of glucose metabolism and protein catabolism and exogenously as a food contaminant. MG reacts spontaneously with proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids to form advanced glycation end products (AGEs), modifying or inhibiting their function. Protein AGEs are associated with pathological complications of diabetes, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases, while the physiological impact of DNA, RNA, and lipid AGE formation is less well explored.

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Purpose: Epilepsy is a complex disease characterized by a predisposition toward seizures. There are numerous barriers to the successful treatment of epilepsy. For instance, current antiepileptic drugs have adverse side effects and variable efficacies.

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Glyoxalase 1 (Glo1) expression has previously been associated with anxiety in mice; however, its role in anxiety is controversial, and the underlying mechanism is unknown. Here, we demonstrate that GLO1 increases anxiety by reducing levels of methylglyoxal (MG), a GABAA receptor agonist. Mice overexpressing Glo1 on a Tg bacterial artificial chromosome displayed increased anxiety-like behavior and reduced brain MG concentrations.

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Glycation of biopolymers by glucose-derived α-oxo-aldehydes such as methylglyoxal (MG) is believed to play a major role in the complex pathologies associated with diabetes and metabolic disease. In contrast to the extensive literature detailing the formation and physiological consequences of protein glycation, there is little information about the corresponding phenomenon for DNA. To assess the potential contribution of DNA glycation to genetic instability, we prepared shuttle vectors containing defined levels of the DNA glycation adduct N(2)-(1-carboxyethyl)-2'-deoxyguanosine (CEdG) and transfected them into isogenic human fibroblasts that differed solely in the capacity to conduct nucleotide excision repair (NER).

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Elevated circulating glucose resulting from complications of obesity and metabolic disease can result in the accumulation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) of proteins, lipids, and DNA. The formation of DNA-AGEs assumes particular importance as these adducts may contribute to genetic instability and elevated cancer risk associated with metabolic disease. The principal DNA-AGE, N(2)-(1-carboxyethyl)-2'-deoxyguanosine (CEdG), is formed as a mixture of R and S isomers at both the polymer and monomer levels.

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Methylglyoxal (MG) and related alpha-oxoaldehydes react with proteins, lipids, and DNA to give rise to covalent adducts known as advanced glycation end products (AGEs). Elevated levels of AGEs have been implicated in the pathological complications of diabetes, uremia, Alzheimer's disease, and possibly cancer. There is therefore widespread interest in developing sensitive methods for the in vivo measurement of AGEs as prognostic biomarkers and for treatment monitoring.

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Endogenous DNA damage induced by lipid peroxidation is believed to play a critical role in carcinogenesis. Lipid peroxidation generates free radical intermediates (primarily peroxyl radicals, ROO(*)) and electrophilic aldehydes as the principal genotoxicants. Although detailed information is available on the role of aldehyde base adducts in mutagenesis and carcinogenesis, the contribution of peroxyl radical mediated DNA base damage is less well understood.

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Nitric oxide (NO(*)) reacts with guanine in DNA and RNA to produce xanthine (X) as a major product. Despite its potential importance in NO(*)-mediated mutagenesis, the biochemical properties of X in polynucleotides have been relatively unexplored. We describe the synthesis and chemical characterization of xanthine-containing oligonucleotides and report on the susceptibility of X to depurination, its miscoding potential during replication by polymerases, and its recognition and excision by several members of the base excision repair (BER) family of DNA glycosylases.

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Oxidatively modified deoxynucleotide triphosphates (dN(oxo)TPs) present in nucleotide precursor pools may contribute to retroviral mutagenesis as a result of incorporation and ambiguous base pairing during reverse transcriptase mediated replication. We have examined the incorporation of 5-hydroxy-2'-deoxycytosine triphosphate (5-HO-dCTP) and 2'-deoxyinosine triphosphate (dITP) by HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (HIV-1 RT) on DNA and RNA templates of the same sequence in order to evaluate their mutagenic potential. Significant variations in insertion frequencies at homologous nucleotide positions were observed for each dN(oxo)TP, in general favoring the RNA template.

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