Modification of DNA by reducing sugars: a possible mechanism for nucleic acid aging and age-related dysfunction in gene expression.

Reducing sugars react nonenzymatically with protein amino groups to initiate a process called nonenzymatic browning. Long-lived proteins, such as collagen and the lens crystallins, accumulate sufficient modification in vivo that they acquire many of the chemical properties characteristic of aged proteins. We have obtained evidence that nucleic acids also can undergo nonenzymatic modification by sugars. Incubation of DNA or nucleotides with glucose 6-phosphate (Glc-6-P) produces spectral changes similar to those described for nonenzymatic browning proteins. The occurrence of chemical modification was verified by measuring the transfection efficiency of viral DNA after incubation with glucose and Glc-6-P. A loss of transfection potential occurred that was first order with respect to time and sugar concentration. The rate of inactivation by Glc-6-P was 25 times that of glucose; 8 days of incubation with 150 mM Glc-6-P decreased transfection by 4 orders of magnitude. Glc-6-P also produced strand scission in a time- and concentration-dependent manner. We conclude that glucose, Glc-6-P, and possibly other sugars can react with DNA to produce significant structural and biological alterations. Since nucleic acids are long-lived molecules in the resting cell, the accumulation of these addition products might be a mechanism for the decreased genetic viability characteristic of the aged organism.