The DNA Glycosylase NEIL2 Suppresses Fusobacterium-Infection-Induced Inflammation and DNA Damage in Colonic Epithelial Cells

Ibrahim M. Sayed, Anirban Chakraborty, Amer Ali Abd El-Hafeez, Aditi Sharma, Ayse Z. Sahan, Wendy Jia Men Huang, Debashis Sahoo, Pradipta Ghosh, Tapas K. Hazra, Soumita Das

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

30 Scopus citations

Abstract

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most prevalent cancer, while the majority (80-85%) of CRCs are sporadic and are microsatellite stable (MSS), and approximately 15-20% of them display microsatellite instability (MSI). Infection and chronic inflammation are known to induce DNA damage in host tissues and can lead to oncogenic transformation of cells, but the role of DNA repair proteins in microbe-associated CRCs remains unknown. Using CRC-associated microbes such as Fusobacterium nucleatum (Fn) in a coculture with murine and human enteroid-derived monolayers (EDMs), here, we show that, among all the key DNA repair proteins, NEIL2, an oxidized base-specific DNA glycosylase, is significantly downregulated after Fn infection. Fn infection of NEIL2-null mouse-derived EDMs showed a significantly higher level of DNA damage, including double-strand breaks and inflammatory cytokines. Several CRC-associated microbes, but not the commensal bacteria, induced the accumulation of DNA damage in EDMs derived from a murine CRC model, and Fn had the most pronounced effect. An analysis of publicly available transcriptomic datasets showed that the downregulation of NEIL2 is often encountered in MSS compared to MSI CRCs. We conclude that the CRC-associated microbe Fn induced the downregulation of NEIL2 and consequent accumulation of DNA damage and played critical roles in the progression of CRCs.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number1986
JournalCells
Volume9
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 28 2020

Keywords

  • DNA damage
  • Fusobacterium nucleatum
  • NEIL2
  • base-excision repair
  • cancer development
  • colorectal cancer
  • enteroid
  • enteroid-derived monolayer
  • genomic instability
  • inflammation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

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