Molecular mechanism of novel DNA sugar damage by an antitumour protein antibiotic

Neocarzinostatin (NCS) belongs to a family of antitumour protein antibiotics that selectively inhibit DNA synthesis. Replicon initiation in mammalian cells is selectively inhibited by NCS, and cells defective in DNA repair, such as ataxia telangiectasia fibroblasts, are especially sensitive to NCS as they are to X-ray. The holoantibiotic consists of a nonprotein chromophore (Mr = 659), tightly and specifically bound to an apoprotein (Mr = 10,700). The apoprotein protects the highly labile chromophore from degradation in aqueous solution; all the activity resides in the nonprotein chromophore. The latter binds specifically to DNA, especially to regions rich in T and A residues, with a tight binding site consisting of four base pairs. NCS chromophore consists of three main structural subunits: a naphthoic acid derivative, an amino-sugar and a connecting highly unsaturated middle component (C12H5) with a strained ether (probably epoxide) and cyclic carbonate. The authors have proposed that the naphthoic acid subunit intercalates DNA and the positively charged amino sugar binds electrostatically to the negatively charged sugar phosphate backbone of DNA; these two anchors serve to juxtapose the middle piece with the deoxyribose of mainly thymidylate residues in DNA. Upon activation of the drug by a thiol (which forms an adduct with the middle piece) and in the presence of O2, there is a selective oxidation of the 5'-C of deoxyribose to produce a DNA strand break with a phosphate at the 3'-end and a nucleoside 5'-aldehyde at the other. Kinetic analysis shows that one molecule of thiol adds to DNA-bound NCS chromophore even in the absence of oxygen; this is rapidly followed by the consumption of 1 mol of O2 and then another mol of thiol. The oxygen of the 5'-aldehyde is derived from O2, not H2O. Even in the absence of O2 the NCS chromophore abstracts a hydrogen from C-5' of deoxyribose in DNA, presumably generating a carbon-centred radical intermediate in the DNA (other mechanisms have not been eliminated) which can add O2 to form a peroxy derivative. The second molecule of thiol may be involved in the cleavage of this complex to form the 5'-aldehyde at the strand break. There is no evidence for the involvement of metals or a diffusible form of reduced oxygen.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)