The DNA base excision repair pathway is responsible for the repair of DNA damage caused by oxidation/alkylation and protects cells against the effects of endogenous and exogenous agents. Removal of the damaged base by creates a baseless (AP) site. AP endonuclease1 (Ape1) acts upon this site to continue the BER pathway repair. Failure to repair baseless sites leads to DNA strand breaks and cytotoxicity. In addition to Ape1's repair role, it also functions as a major redox signaling factor to reduce and activate transcription factors such as AP1, p53, HIF-1α and others which control the expression of genes important for cell survival and cancer promotion and progression. Thus the Ape1 protein interacts with proteins involved in DNA repair, growth signaling pathways and pathways involved in tumor promotion and progression. While knockdown studies using siRNA have been informative in studying the role of Ape1 in both normal and cancer cells, knocking down Ape1 does not reveal the individual role of Ape1's redox or repair functions. The identification of small molecule inhibitors of specific Ape1 functions is critical for mechanistic studies and translational applications. Here we discuss small molecule inhibition of Ape1 redox and its effect on both cancer and endothelial cells.

Pancreatic cancer is a largely incurable disease, and increasing evidence supports strategies targeting multiple molecular mediators of critical functions of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cells. Intracellular redox state modulates the activity of various signal transduction pathways and biological processes, including cell survival, drug resistance and responsiveness to microenvironmental factors. Recently, it has been shown that the transcription factor STAT3 is under redox control, but the mechanisms involved in its regulation are unknown. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that STAT3 DNA binding and transcriptional activity is directly regulated by the redox function of the APE1/Ref-1 endonuclease, using overexpression and redox-specific mutational strategies, and gene knockdown. Also, pharmacological blockade of APE1/Ref-1 by the redox-selective inhibitor E3330 abrogates STAT3 DNA binding. Since APE1/Ref-1 also exerts redox control on other cancer-associated transcription factors, we assessed the impact of dual-targeting of STAT3 signaling and APE1/Ref-1 redox on pancreatic cancer cell functions. We observed that disruption of APE1/Ref-1 redox activity synergizes with STAT3 blockade to potently inhibit the proliferation and viability of human PDAC cells. Mechanistically, we show that STAT3–APE1/Ref-1 dual targeting promotes marked tumor cell apoptosis, with engagement of caspase-3 signaling, which are significantly increased in comparison to the effects triggered by single target blockade. Also, we show that STAT3–APE1/Ref-1 dual blockade results in significant inhibition of tumor cell migration. Overall, this work demonstrates that the transcriptional activity of STAT3 is directly regulated by the redox function of APE1/Ref-1, and that concurrent blockade of STAT3 and APE1/Ref-1 redox synergize effectively inhibit critical PDAC cell functions.

Although chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is a dose-limiting side effect of platinum drugs, the mechanisms of this toxicity remain unknown. Previous work in our laboratory suggests that cisplatin-induced CIPN is secondary to DNA damage which is susceptible to base excision repair (BER). To further examine this hypothesis, we studied the effects of cisplatin, oxaliplatin, and carboplatin on cell survival, DNA damage, ROS production, and functional endpoints in rat sensory neurons in culture in the absence or presence of reduced expression of the BER protein AP endonuclease/redox factor-1 (APE1). Using an in situ model of peptidergic sensory neuron function, we examined the effects of the platinum drugs on hind limb capsaicin-evoked vasodilatation. Exposing sensory neurons in culture to the three platinum drugs caused a concentration-dependent increase in apoptosis and cell death, although the concentrations of carboplatin were 10 fold higher than cisplatin. As previously observed with cisplatin, oxaliplatin and carboplatin also increased DNA damage as indicated by an increase in phospho-H2AX and reduced the capsaicin-evoked release of CGRP from neuronal cultures. Both cisplatin and oxaliplatin increased the production of ROS as well as 8-oxoguanine DNA adduct levels, whereas carboplatin did not. Reducing levels of APE1 in neuronal cultures augmented the cisplatin and oxaliplatin induced toxicity, but did not alter the effects of carboplatin. Using an in vivo model, systemic injection of cisplatin (3 mg/kg), oxaliplatin (3 mg/kg), or carboplatin (30 mg/kg) once a week for three weeks caused a decrease in capsaicin-evoked vasodilatation, which was delayed in onset. The effects of cisplatin on capsaicin-evoked vasodilatation were attenuated by chronic administration of E3330, a redox inhibitor of APE1 that serendipitously enhances APE1 DNA repair activity in sensory neurons. These outcomes support the importance of the BER pathway, and particularly APE1, in sensory neuropathy caused by cisplatin and oxaliplatin, but not carboplatin and suggest that augmenting DNA repair could be a therapeutic target for CIPN.

APE1 is a multifunctional protein possessing DNA repair and redox activation of transcription factors. Blocking these functions leads to apoptosis, antiangiogenesis, cell-growth inhibition, and other effects, depending on which function is blocked. Because a selective inhibitor of the APE redox function has potential as a novel anticancer therapeutic, new analogues of E3330 were synthesized. Mass spectrometry was used to characterize the interactions of the analogues (RN8-51, 10-52, and 7-60) with APE1. RN10-52 and RN7-60 were found to react rapidly with APE1, forming covalent adducts, whereas RN8-51 reacted reversibly. Median inhibitory concentration (IC(50) values of all three compounds were significantly lower than that of E3330. EMSA, transactivation assays, and endothelial tube growth-inhibition analysis demonstrated the specificity of E3330 and its analogues in blocking the APE1 redox function and demonstrated that the analogues had up to a sixfold greater effect than did E3330. Studies using cancer cell lines demonstrated that E3330 and one analogue, RN8-51, decreased the cell line growth with little apoptosis, whereas the third, RN7-60, caused a dramatic effect. RN8-51 shows particular promise for further anticancer therapeutic development. This progress in synthesizing and isolating biologically active novel E3330 analogues that effectively inhibit the APE1 redox function validates the utility of further translational anticancer therapeutic development.

Apurinic endonuclease 1/redox effector factor-1 (Ape1/Ref-1 or Ape1) is an essential protein with two distinct functions. It is a DNA repair enzyme in the base excision repair (BER) pathway and a reduction-oxidation (redox) signaling factor maintaining transcription factors in an active reduced state. Our laboratory previously demonstrated that Ape1 is overexpressed in ovarian cancer and potentially contributes to resistance. Therefore, we utilized siRNA technology to knockdown protein levels of Ape1 in ovarian cancer cell line, SKOV-3x. Knocking Ape1 down had dramatic effects on cell growth in vitro but was not due to an increase in apoptosis and at least partially due to an extension in transit time through S-phase. Similarly, human ovarian tumor xenografts with reduced levels of Ape1 protein demonstrated a dramatic reduction in tumor volume (p<0.01) and also statistically significant (p=0.02) differences in (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake indicating reduced glucose metabolism and cellular proliferation. Ape1's role in DNA repair and redox signaling is important to our basic understanding of ovarian cancer cell growth and these findings strongly support Ape1 as a therapeutic target.