Human Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate Dehydrogenase Plays a Direct Role in Reactivating Oxidized Forms of the DNA Repair Enzyme APE1

Abstract

Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) has diverse biological functions including its nuclear translocation in response to oxidative stress. We show that GAPDH physically associates with APE1, an essential enzyme involved in the repair of abasic sites in damaged DNA, as well as in the redox regulation of several transcription factors. This interaction allows GAPDH to convert the oxidized species of APE1 to the reduced form, thereby reactivating its endonuclease activity to cleave abasic sites. The GAPDH variants C152G and C156G retain the ability to interact with but are unable to reactivate APE1, implicating these cysteines in catalyzing the reduction of APE1. Interestingly, GAPDH-small interfering RNA knockdown sensitized the cells to methyl methane sulfonate and bleomycin, which generate lesions that are repaired by APE1, but showed normal sensitivity to 254-nm UV. Moreover, the GAPDH knockdown cells exhibited an increased level of spontaneous abasic sites in the genomic DNA as a result of diminished APE1 endonuclease activity. Thus, the nuclear translocation of GAPDH during oxidative stress constitutes a protective mechanism to safeguard the genome by preventing structural inactivation of APE1.The evolutionary conserved enzyme glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) 3 exists as a tetramer that catalyzes a critical reaction in the second stage of the glycolytic pathway (1). It uses the oxidized form of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD ϩ ) and converts glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate to 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate with the concomitant release of NADH in an oxido-reduction reaction (1). GAPDH is also a key redox-sensitive protein that possesses an active site cysteine sulfhydryl that is susceptible to oxidation (2). Under oxidative stress, GAPDH rapidly undergoes disulfide bond formation leading to reduction in its enzymatic activity (2, 3). GAPDH has the propensity to interact with several proteins that are vulnerable to aggregation and are associated with neurodegenerative disorders such as in the case of the pro-oxidant amyloid ␤ peptide involved in Alzheimer disease (4). Recent studies have documented that GAPDH is also involved in several other nuclear processes that include histone H2B gene expression, nuclear RNA export, apoptosis, and cellular response to DNA damage (5-8).Several lines of evidence support a role for GAPDH in DNA damage and repair (5, 9). For example, GAPDH can translocate from the cytoplasm to the nucleus when cells are challenged with the potent chemical oxidant and DNA-damaging agent H 2 O 2 , although it is not clear what is the function executed by GAPDH under this stress condition (10). However, a more recent study documented that nitric oxide can also induce nuclear localization of GAPDH where it is acetylated by the acetyltransferase p300/CBP via direct protein interaction, which in turn causes stimulation of the catalytic activity of p300/CBP, resulting in the activation of downstream targets such as p53 (11). Other studies have shown that GAPDH is associated w...

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“…Although several studies have indicated that GAPDH is involved in chemotherapy-induced DNA damage response, the specific mechanism of GAPDH in HCC chemotherapy treatment remains unclear (18,19). araC is considered to inhibit the proliferation of cells through incorporation into the DNA during replication (35), by inhabiting the DNA synthesis and arresting cell division; however, it does not disturb the RNA synthesis (36).…”

“…In addition, studies have demonstrated that GAPDH is involved in certain important physiological functions, including the transport of transfer RNA (9), translational control (10) and binding with viral RNAs (11,12 (13), lung cancer (14), breast cancer (15), prostate carcinoma (16) and HCC (17). A number of studies have demonstrated that the elevated expression of GAPDH is correlated with chemotherapy-induced DNA damage response (18,19). The induction of cell cycle arrest in p53-proficient carcinoma cells through GAPDH abrogation indicates that GAPDH-depleting agents may have a cytostatic effect in cancer cells (20).…”