Chemical shift assignments for human apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1

Apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 (APE1 or Ref-1) is the major enzyme in mammals for processing abasic sites in DNA. These cytotoxic and mutagenic lesions arise via spontaneous rupture of the base-sugar bond or the removal of damaged bases by a DNA glycosylase. APE1 cleaves the DNA backbone 5' to an abasic site, giving a 3'-OH primer for repair synthesis, and mediates other key repair activities. The DNA repair functions are essential for embryogenesis and cell viability. APE1-deficient cells are hypersensitive to DNA-damaging agents, and APE1 is considered an attractive target for inhibitors that could potentially enhance the efficacy of some anti-cancer agents. To enable an important new method for studying the structure, dynamics, catalytic mechanism, and inhibition of APE1, we assigned the chemical shifts (backbone and (13)C(beta)) of APE1 residues 39-318. We also report a protocol for refolding APE1, which was essential for achieving complete exchange of backbone amide sites for the perdeuterated protein.