Linking oxidative DNA lesion 8-OxoG to tumor development and progression

Cells of the aerobic metabolic organism are inevitably subjected to the damage from reactive oxygen species (ROS). ROS cause multiple forms of DNA damage, among which the oxidation product of guanine G 8-hydroxyguanine (8-oxoG) is the most frequent DNA oxidative damage, recognized by the specific glycosidase OGG1 that initiates the base excision repair pathway. If left unrepaired, 8-oxoG may pair with A instead of C, leading to a mutation of G: C to T: A during replication. Thus, the accumulation of 8-oxoG or the abnormal OGG1 repair is thought to affect gene function, which in turn leads to the development of tumor or aging-related diseases. However, a series of recent studies have shown that 8-oxoG tends to be produced in regulatory regions of the genome. 8-oxoG can be regarded as an epigenetic modification, while OGG1 is a specific reader of this information. Substrate recognition, binding or resection by OGG1 can cause DNA conformation changes or affect histone modifications, causing up-regulation or down-regulation of genes with different properties. Thus, in addition to the potential genotoxicity, the association of guanine oxidative damage with development of tumors is closely related to its aberrant initiation of gene expression through epigenetic mechanisms. In this review, we summarize the underlying mechanism of 8-oxoG and repair enzyme OGG1 in tumor development and progression, with aims to interpret the relationship between DNA oxidative damage and tumor from a new perspective, and provide new ideas and targets for tumor treatment.