There is a robust mechanistic basis for the role of oxidation damage to DNA in the aetiology of various major diseases (cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, cancer). Robust, validated biomarkers are needed to measure oxidative damage in the context of molecular epidemiology, to clarify risks associated with oxidative stress, to improve our understanding of its role in health and disease and to test intervention strategies to ameliorate it. Of the urinary biomarkers for DNA oxidation, 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-oxodG) is the most studied. However, there are a number of factors which hamper our complete understanding of what meausrement of this lesion in urine actually represents. DNA repair is thought to be a major contributor to urinary 8-oxodG levels, although the precise pathway(s) has not been proven, plus possible contribution from cell turnover and diet are possible confounders. Most recently, evidence has arisen which suggests that nucleotide salvage of 8-oxodG and 8-oxoGua can contribute substantially to 8-oxoG levels in DNA and RNA, at least in rapidly dividing cells. This new observation may add an further confounder to the conclusion that 8-oxoGua or 8-oxodG, and its nucleobase equivalent 8-oxoguanine, concentrations in urine are simply a consequence of DNA repair. Further studies are required to define the relative contributions of metabolism, disease and diet to oxidised nucleic acids and their metabolites in urine in order to develop urinalyis as a better tool for understanding human disease.
Normal cellular metabolism results in the continual production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). However, exposure to xenobiotics, ionising and nonionsing radiation etc. may lead to an increased production that overwhelms the antioxidant defences, leading to a condition of oxidative stress. Even normal levels of ROS production leads to modification of cellular biomolecules, such as DNA, lipids and proteins, for the most part, without detrimental effects upon the cell. However, under oxidative stress, levels of modification increase and this may have implications for cellular function.
Perhaps most studied, is oxidative modification of DNA, and whilst the principle consequence of this might be mutations, it should not be forgotten that ROS-induced damage to DNA may have non-mutational effects, such as the acceleration of telomere shortening [
There is a rapidly growing body evidence which suggests that this plethora of lesions, arising from oxidative stress, may have an important role in the aetiology and/or pathogenesis of many diseases, such as cancer and aging (reviewed in Cooke
Assessment of damage to DNA by methods requiring invasive procedures, e.g. blood samples or tissue biopsy, imposes severe limitations in large-scale human studies, requiring staff with specialist training, greater ethical scrutiny, and reducing the likelihood of consent. In constrast, examining the products of oxidatively generated damage to DNA in extracellular matrices offers a means by which oxidative stress may be assessed non-, or minimally, invasively, and circumvents DNA extraction and associated risk of artefact.
Broadly, methods that have been applied to the study of oxidatively damaged DNA lesions in urine are either chromatographic [principally, HPLC-MS/MS; liquid chromatography pre-purification prior to GC-MS (i.e. HPLC-GC/MS), HPLC-EC, GC-MS], or immunoassay. Whilst a variety of lesions have been reported to be present in urine (Table
Whilst thymine (and thymidine) glycol was one of the first ROS-induced DNA lesions to be studied in urine [
At its simplest, column switching has meant that, following chromatographic separation of the urine’s constituents, only the fraction containing the compound of interest (e.g. 8-oxodG) is applied to the final separation column and detector, either EC [
Solid phase extraction (SPE) has been used for the analysis of urinary 8-oxodG by GC-MS [
Whilst not as prevalent as methods for analysing primary DNA products of oxidation in urine, the analysis of secondary DNA products of oxidation reactions in urine is a rapidly growing area of interest. Several methods have been developed for the measurement of lipid peroxidation-induced etheno-DNA adducts in human urine. For example, HPLC-fluorescence detection of εdA [
Although not presently used for urinary analysis of DNA oxidation products, accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) is an emerging technology for measuring radiocarbon-labeled nucleotides and nucleosides [
Competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) has received widespread, and growing, use for the analysis of lesions in extracellular matrices. Predominantly, 8-oxodG has been the lesion of choice for commercially available (e.g. from the Japanese Institute for the Control of Aging, JaICA), and custom made [
The possible sources of extracellular, oxidatively-modified, DNA lesions are: (i) DNA repair, (ii) diet, (iii) cell death/turnover, mitochondrial turnover and, most recently added to this list, (iv) cellular uptake and re-utilisation of damage products.
The DNA N-glycosylases responsible for removing modified bases are increasingly well defined [
The glycosylase considered to have the primary activity in removing 8-oxoGua in human cells, is the human 8-oxoGua glycosylase 1 (hOGG1 [
The contribution of OGG1 enzyme to levels of urinary 8-oxoGua has been examined in
In contrast, the presence of 2'-deoxyribonucleoside lesions in extracellular matrices is less well-defined, not least as there are no reports of a single DNA repair enzyme whose activity yields 8-oxodG. Based upon existing evidence, we suggest the following DNA repair routes (Fig.
Free deoxynucleotides have a greater propensity for oxidation compared to base-paired deoxynucleotides in DNA [
Principally, NER removes bulky lesions, such as cyclobutane thymine dimers (T<>T), although there is there is some evidence for activity towards 8-oxodG (Fig.
This is a more recently described DNA repair pathway whose lesion repertoire is more oriented towards oxidised pyrimidines, rather than purines. However, dependent on the structural context, 8-oxoGua can be a substrate, when 8-oxo-Gua is present at the 3'-end of a DNA strand break, such a situation could occur from mis-incorporation of 8-oxodGMP during DNA synthesis or damage induced by ionising radiation, in this context 8-oxoGua is reistant to excision by OGG1. The 3'-5' exonuclease activity of Apn1, in
The recognition of mis-incorporated 8-oxoGua either opposite G or A can render the lesion a substrate for MMR [
A poorly characterised endonuclease has been reported by Bessho
As noted earlier, in addition to 8-oxodG, the following modified 2'-deoxyribonucleosides have been identified in urine: dTg, 5-OHmUrd, M1dG, εdA, and εdC, and their origins are even less clear.
The majority of reports measuring oxidatively modified DNA lesions in urine, have focussed upon 2'-deoxyribonucleoside lesions, and 8-oxodG specifically. The reason for this is because early work in the field demonstrated that diet could affect levels of urinary 8-oxoGua, but not 8-oxodG. Whilst it was concluded that Tg was unaffected by diet, the raw data would suggest otherwise: gastric intubation of rats demonstrated that 44% of ingested [3H]-Tg was recovered intact in the urine within 24 h ([
In contrast, there is agreement between all studies showing that urinary 2'-deoxynucleoside lesions, are unaffected by diet. In rats, this was demonstrated by both the nucleic acid-free diet studies and intubation studies (only 1% of [3H]-8-oxodG and 5% of [3H]- thymidine glycol, dTg, appeared in the urine; [
For completeness, it is worth considering ribonucleoside lesions, although there have been very few reports examining oxidatively-modified ribonucleosides in urine [
Urinary levels of another lesion, N2-methyl-8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanine, have been measured and noted to be elevated in ill and growing infants, initially suggesting a role for this oxidatively-modified tRNA component as a marker of oxidative stress [
Whilst oxidative modification of DNA bases, such as 8-oxoGua, may have a number of detrimental consequences for the cell [
Upon ingestion, nucleic acids are rapidly fragmented, by mastication combined with enzymic digestion and acid hydrolysis in the buccal cavity and gastro-intestinal tract (GIT [
Even though specific transport systems are reported to exist for bases and nucleosides, for healthy, well-nourished individuals, reliance on dietary sources of nucleosides to supplement salvage and
Studies utilising radio-labelled lesions are preferred over those involving nucleic acid-free diets as the use of radiolabels provides a degree of stringency not afforded by nucleic acid-free diets (possible short-comings of nucleic acid-free diets have been discussed above). For example, the presence of labelled lesions in the urine/faeces, cross-contamination notwithstanding, can only come from the dietary source. However, for ethical reasons, radio-labelled lesions are to be avoided in human studies. To circumvent this issue, Cooke
Healthy, male volunteers were fed 5, 15 or 25 mg of the damaged [15N]-DNA, and first void, mid-stream urine samples were collected for up to 14 days later. The presence of [15N5]-8-oxodG, and [15N5]-8-oxoGua in urine was investigated using HPLC-GC/MS [
Unlike previous studies, which had only been performed in animals, the authors also examined the DNA from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), collected for up to seven days following ingestion of labelled DNA, for possible incorporation of label. The justification for this derived from reports that phage DNA may appear in a diverse range of cell types, including PBMC, 24 h after ingestion by mice [
As with previous studies [
It has been stated that urinary 8-oxodG does not reflect DNA repair, as it is not a product of base excision repair [
Is there any evidence to suggest that 8-oxodG may be liberated from DNA whilst in the systemic circulation? Perhaps. It has been reported that rat liver homogenates can release 8-oxodG from oxidatively-modified DNA [
It has been suggested by Cooke
In contrast to 8-oxoG in DNA, little information is available on the mutagenic potential and cellular responses to the presence of free 8-oxodG. The cellular metabolism of 8-oxodG is the subject of an emerging and sometimes conflicting literature. In human cells, dG predominantly undergoes phosphorolysis by purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP) to form the free nucleobase Gua and 2'-deoxyribose-1'-phosphate. The resulting free nucleobase is a substrate for hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HGPRT), resulting in formation of GMP. Two additional phosphorylation steps afford GTP, which serves as a substrate for RNA polymerase-dependent incorporation into RNA. This pathway can also feed into DNA synthesis, since GDP can be reduced to dGDP by ribonucleotide reductase (RR) by replacement of the 2'-OH with a hydrogen atom. This pathway is represented schematically by:
dG→Gua→GMP→GDP→GTP→RNA
and
dG→Gua→GMP→GDP→dGDP→dGTP→DNA
Alternatively, cellular deoxycytidine kinase (dCK) or mitochondrial deoxyguanosine kinase (dGK) phosphorylate dG to form dGMP, which can then be serially phosphorylated to dGTP prior to incorporation into DNA during replication or repair synthesis:
dG→dGMP→dGDP→dGTP→DNA.
Based upon the known nucleotide salvage pathways for dG, 8-oxodG may also be metabolized by two distinct pathways.
(1) If 8-oxodG is a substrate for PNP, the nucleobase portion of 8-oxodG can be hydrolyzed from the 2'-deoxyribose ring. The resulting 8-oxoGua is a substrate for nucleotide salvage, resulting in the ribonucleotide and 2'-deoxyribonucleotide triphosphates 8-oxoGTP and 8-oxodGTP, respectively, which contribute to RNA and DNA synthesis.
(2) Direct mono-, di- and triphosphorylation of 8-oxodG would result in formation of 8-oxodGTP, a substrate for DNA synthesis [
In an effort to determine whether 8-oxodG is a substrate for the human nucleotide salvage pathways that utilize dG, Henderson and coworkers measured [14C]8-oxodG metabolism in MCF-7 cells [
These initial observations were accompanied by inhibitor-based experiments aimed at determining the mechanism of incorporation. The [14C]8-oxodG experiments were repeated in the presence of inhibitors of PNP, RR and dCK [
An intruiging possible consequence of nucleotide salvage for DNA and nucleotide pool repair pathways is the production of both 8-oxodG and 8-oxoGua that may ultimately be excreted in urine. Prevention of the incorporation of 8-oxodG into DNA or RNA derives from the activity of MTH1 and 5'-nucleotidase. Whether 8-oxodGMP is a substrate for cellular dGMP nucleotidase activity remains unanswered.
The recently published data on exogenous 8-oxodG is in partial agreement with the literature. For example, Zeng
Kim
The potential exists, as for DNA, that urinary lesions may arise from the artefactual oxidation of nucleobases, or 2'-deoxyribonucleosides, following exposure to metabolic enzymes, or other oxidising species, after release into the systemic circulation, or in the urine. However, Shigenaga
Furthermore, as significant concentrations of hydrogen peroxide have been reported to be present in urine [
Whilst the above provide evidence of stability in extracellular matrices, it is worth noting that 8-oxodG is more prone to oxidation than dG, due to its lower redox potential [
Overall, it would appear that 8-oxodG, Tg and dTg, and probably 8-oxoGua, are not formed artefactually
There is a great deal of evidence, albeit largely circumstantial, implicating a role for oxidatively damaged DNA in various diseases, in particular cancer [
Non-invasive, with ramifications for gaining ethical approval and access to vulnerable groups.
Samples are easily collected (low biological hazard, no pre-processing prior to storage, small volumes), stored (stable at –80°C for >10 y, with no ‘special’ treatments or preservatives) and transported.
Stability of 8-oxodG in urine allows access to samples from previous studies/biobanks.
Applicable to the study of large sample size, as many of the assays are semi-automated and with potentially high throughput.
Measurement of this biomarker is also the closest to validation, which includes understanding the provenence of 8-oxodG in urine, evaluation of confounding factors and work towards inter-laboratory consensus. However, an important caveat with validation of urinary biomarkers, is to not simply apply the findings for one lesion, to all the others. For example, we have noted herein that the literature indicates that diet may contribute to levels of urinary 8-oxoGua, but not urinary Tg. To some extent, therefore, all lesions need to be indipendetly validated, drawing on the experience of 8-oxo(d)G.
To accelerate this process, the European Standards Committee of Urinary (DNA) Lesion Analysis (ESCULA) has been formed, which now represents an international group of >25 laboratories dedicated to the validation of urinary biomarkers of DNA damage (further information, including how to apply for membership, can be found at http://escula.org ).
MSC and MDE are partners of ECNIS (Environmental Cancer Risk, Nutrition and Individual Susceptibility), a network of excellence operating within the European Union 6th Framework Program, Priority 5: “Food Quality and Safety” (Contract No 513943). PTH was supported by National Institutes of Health Grants RR13461, CA93373, the California Breast Cancer Research Program Grant 9KB-0179 and the Knapp Family Fund.
Structures of (A) 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanine (8-oxoGua), and (B) 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-oxodG).
DNA repair sources of extracellular 8-oxodG and 8-oxoGua. NER, nucleotide excision repair; hOGG1 and hOGG2, human 8-oxoguanine glycosylase (1 and 2); NIR, nucleotide incision repair; MMR, mis-match repair.
Potential fate of extracellular 8-oxodG, and 8-oxoGua, by metabolic salvage pathways. Neither 8-oxodG, nor 8-oxodGMP can be phosphorylated, as they are not substrates for deoxynucleoside kinase, or guanylate kinase, respectively. Therefore the alternative pathway, discussed by Hah
DNA-derived markers of oxidative stress examined1) in human urine.
| Nucleobase | Modification | Abbreviation |
|---|---|---|
| Gua | 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanine | 8-oxoGua |
| 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2'-deoxyguanosine | 8-oxodG | |
| 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanosine | 8-oxoG | |
| Pyrimido[1,2-a]purin-10(3 |
M1Gua | |
| 3-(2-deoxy-β-D- |
M1dG | |
| 1, N2-ethenoguanine | 1, N2-εGua | |
| N2-3-ethenoguanine | N2-3-εGua | |
|
|
||
| Ade | 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroadenine | 8-oxoAde |
| 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2'-deoxyadenosine | 8-oxodA | |
| 1, |
εdA | |
|
|
||
| Thy | Thymine glycol | Tg |
| Thymidine glycol | dTg | |
| 5-(hydroxymethyl)uracil | 5-HMUra | |
| 5-hydroxymethyl-2'-deoxyuridine | 5-HMdUrd | |
| 5-hydroxyuracil | 5-OHUra | |
|
|
||
| Cyt | 3, |
εCyt |
| 3, |
εdC | |
1) Examined, but not necessarily detected.