The genome continuously suffers damage due to its reactivity with chemical and physical agents. Finding such damage in genomes (that can be several million to several billion nucleotide base pairs in size) is a seemingly daunting task. 3-Methyladenine DNA glycosylases can initiate the base excision repair (BER) of an extraordinarily wide range of substrate bases. The advantage of such broad sub...

Purified bacterial 3-methyladenine DNA glycosylase II releases four 7-alkylguanines from [3H]N-(2-chloroethyl)-N'-cyclohexyl-N-nitrosourea-modified DNA: 7-(2-hydroxyethyl)guanine,1,2-bis(7-guanyl)ethane, 7-(2-chloroethyl)guanine, and 7-(2-ethoxyethyl)guanine. 7-(2-Ethoxyethyl)guanine, a new compound, is formed as a result of an interaction with ethanol, a common solvent for the 2-haloethylnitro...

3-methyladenine (3MeA) DNA glycosylases remove 3MeAs from alkylated DNA to initiate the base excision repair pathway. Here we report the generation of mice deficient in the 3MeA DNA glycosylase encoded by the Aag (Mpg) gene. Alkyladenine DNA glycosylase turns out to be the major DNA glycosylase not only for the cytotoxic 3MeA DNA lesion, but also for the mutagenic 1,N6-ethenoadenine (epsilonA) ...

Dimethylnitrosamine administration led to the produc tion of abnormal methylated purines in rat liver DNA. All of the methylated purines formed were lost from DNA to some extent over a 24-hr period although the rate of removal varied with the purine considered. The rates of loss of 1-methyladenine, 3-methyladenine, 7-methyladenine, 3-methylguanine, and 7-methylguanine were not changed significa...

Objectives. To observe the therapeutic effects of Acanthopanax and 3-methyladenine against severe acute pancreatitis (SAP). Methods. Sodium taurocholate-induced SAP rats were equally randomized into a SAP group, an Acanthopanax group, and a 3-methyladenine group. Serum amylase levels were determined by ELISA; protein and mRNA expression levels of nucleus nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) p65, ligh...

3-Methyladenine-DNA glycosylase activities have been identified in all eukaryotic cell systems studied. Some of the results from these studies are reviewed here. The enzymes possess molecular weights between 24 X 10(3) and 34 X 10(3), they have a broad pH optimum at approximately pH 8, require double-stranded DNA and act in the absence of any cofactors. The enzyme can excise several different m...