Oxidative DNA damage is one of the earliest detectable events in several neurodegenerative diseases, often preceding the onset of the clinical symptoms. Moreover, neurons in the adult human brain can re-enter the cell division cycle, likely allowing DNA repair. Impairments of DNA repair pathways are reported in neurons of patients suffering from one of several neurodegenative diseases and might...

Ataxia with ocular motor apraxia type 1 (AOA1) is an autosomal recessive cerebellar ataxia (ARCA) associated with oculomotor apraxia, hypoalbuminaemia and hypercholesterolaemia. The gene APTX, which encodes aprataxin, has been identified recently. We studied a large series of 158 families with non-Friedreich progressive ARCA. We identified 14 patients (nine families) with five different missens...

Aprataxin, defective in the neurodegenerative disorder ataxia oculomotor apraxia type 1 (AOA1), is a DNA repair protein that processes the product of abortive ligations, 5' adenylated DNA. In addition to its interaction with the single-strand break repair protein XRCC1, aprataxin also interacts with poly-ADP ribose polymerase 1 (PARP-1), a key player in the detection of DNA single-strand breaks...

Aprataxin, defective in the neurodegenerative disorder ataxia oculomotor apraxia type 1, resolves abortive DNA ligation intermediates during DNA repair. Here, we demonstrate that aprataxin localizes at sites of DNA damage induced by high LET radiation and binds to mediator of DNA-damage checkpoint protein 1 (MDC1/NFBD1) through a phosphorylation-dependent interaction. This interaction is mediat...

Aprataxin is the causative gene product for early-onset ataxia with ocular motor apraxia and hypoalbuminemia/ataxia with oculomotor apraxia type 1 (EAOH/AOA1), the clinical symptoms of which are predominantly neurological. Although aprataxin has been suggested to be related to DNA single-strand break repair (SSBR), the physiological function of aprataxin remains to be elucidated. DNA single-str...

expression to predict the clinical response to tipifarnib and etoposide. RASGRP1 is a guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) that specifically activates RAS, and Aprataxin is a member of the histine triad family of nucleotide hydrolsases involved in the repair of DNA strand breaks. 3 The two-gene expression ratio (RASGRP1/APTX) was identified by analyzing gene expression profiles in bone marr...

Dear Editor, Ataxia with oculomotor apraxia type I (AOA1) is a recessively inherited ataxic disorder that is characterized clinically by the childhood onset of progressive cerebellar ataxia, oculomotor apraxia (OMA), and peripheral axonal sensorimotor neuropathy.1 Dystonia, chorea, and cognitive impairment are commonly associated symptoms, and hypoalbuminemia and hypercholesterolemia are often ...

Ataxia oculomotor apraxia-1 is a neurological disorder that arises from mutations in the gene encoding the protein aprataxin. A recent study demonstrates that aprataxin is critical for the processing of obstructive DNA termini, suggesting a broader role for DNA single-strand break repair in neurodegenerative disease.

DNA3'pp5'G caps synthesized by the 3'-PO4/5'-OH ligase RtcB have a strong impact on enzymatic reactions at DNA 3'-OH ends. Aprataxin, an enzyme that repairs A5'pp5'DNA ends formed during abortive ligation by classic 3'-OH/5'-PO4 ligases, is also a DNA 3' de-capping enzyme, converting DNAppG to DNA3'p and GMP. By taking advantage of RtcB's ability to utilize certain GTP analogs to synthesize DNA...

AOA1 (ataxia oculomotor apraxia-1) results from mutations in aprataxin, a component of DNA strand break repair that removes AMP from 5'-termini. In the present article, we provide an overview of this disease and review recent experiments demonstrating that short-patch repair of oxidative single-strand breaks in AOA1 cell extracts bypasses the point of aprataxin action and stalls at the final st...