Effect of apurinic/apyrimidinic endonucleases and polyamines on DNA treated with bleomycin and neocarzinostatin: specific formation and cleavage of closely opposed lesions in complementary strands

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Abstract
Bleomycin and neocarzinostatin induce modified apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP) sites by oxidation of the sugar moiety in DNA. In order to quantitatively assess the susceptibility of these lesions to repair endonucleases, drug-treated 3H-labeled colE1 DNA was mixed with 14C-labeled heat-depurinated DNA, and endonuclease-suspceptible sites in the mixture were titrated with various AP endonucleases or with polyamines. Single- and double-strand breaks were quantitated by determining the fractions of supercoiled, nicked circular, and linear molecules. Exonuclease III and endonucleases III and IV of Escherichia coli, as well as putrescine, produced a nearly 2-fold increase in single-strand breaks in bleomycin-treated DNA, indicating cleavage of drug-induced AP sites. The bleomycin-induced AP sites were comparable to heat-induced sites in their sensitivity to E. coli endonucleases III and IV but were cleaved by exonuclease III only at high concentrations. Bleomycin-induced AP sites were much more sensitive to cleavage by putrescine tha heat-induced sites. Treatment with putrescine or very high concentrations of endonuclease III also increased the number of double-strand breaks in bleomycin-treated DNA, suggesting a minor class of lesion consisting of an AP site accompanied by a closely opposed break in the complementary strand. These complex lesions were resistant to cleavage by endonuclease IV. However, when colE1 DNA was treated with neocarzinostatin, subsequent treatment with putrescine, endonuclease IV, or very high concentrations of endonclease III produced a dramatic increase in double-strand breaks but no detectable increase in single-strand breaks. These results suggest that virtually all neocarzinostatin-induced AP sites are accompanied by a closely opposed strand break. The presence of a closely opposed strand break apparently renders AP sites resistant to cleavage by at least some AP endonucleases, although the degree of resistance to specific enzymes may depend on the precise structure and/or exact position of both the AP site and the accompanying break. The fraction of such closely opposed lesions induced by both bleomycin and neocarzinostatin is significant, even at very low levels of DNA damage, and the resistance of these lesions to repair enzymes suggests possible involvement in both the cytotoxic and mutagenic effects of these drugs. Several characteristics of the putative AP site/strand-break lesions induced by neocarzinostatin suggest that they may correspond to certain AP-like lesions which were previously detected on DNA sequencing gels as endonuclease IV susceptible sites and which have been strongly implicated in neocarzinostatin-induced mutagenesis.