DNA Damage/Repair

DNA damage may result from both endogenous factors (e.g., replication errors, oxidative deamination, and reactive oxygen species) and exogenous factors (e.g., UV light and radiation). The processes of DNA repair involve the identification of DNA damage and subsequent restoration by several processes including nucleotide excision repair, base excision repair, non-homologous-end-joining, and homologous recombination depending on the type of DNA damage (single stranded DNA break vs. double stranded DNA break. If damage to DNA cannot be repaired, the cell will undergo cell cycle arrest, senescence, or programmed cell death.

Figure 1. The cell signaling pathways that are involved in DNA damage are displayed. Excision repair cross-complementation group genes (ERCC-1/-4), X-ray repair complementing defective repair in Chinese hamster cells genes (XRCC-1/-5/-6), poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP1), the Fanconi anemia gene complex (FANC-A/-C/-D2/-E/-F/-G/-L), Rad51 recombinase (RAD51), ATM serine/threonine kinase (ATM), ATR serine/threonine kinase (ATR), protein kinase, DNA-activated catalytic polypeptide (PRKDC), and the breast cancer, early onset genes (BRCA1/2) are included in the DNA damage pathway. Specific nodes in the pathway that are therapeutically actionable are noted. Click here to open a larger version of this image in a new window.

Upstream Pathways

Diseases in Which Pathway is Aberrantly Activated

Myelodysplastic syndromes

Therapies That Target This Pathway

PARP inhibitors

Genes Involved in the Pathway

Last Updated: May 24, 2016

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