A study of the pharmacokinetics and tolerability of ritipenem acoxil in healthy volunteers following multiple oral dosing

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) suffers extensive damage from the environment, however, the enzymes involved in the repair of mtDNA are still unknown. Here, we partially purified mitochondrial endonuclease G (Endo G) from the bovine heart, and examined the action of Endo G on damaged DNA. Treatment of DNA with L-ascorbic acid or peplomycin, that introduces single-strand breaks through active oxygen radicals, greatly enhanced the susceptibility to nucleolytic attacks from Endo G. The enzyme cleaved at or near sites where single-strand breaks were present in the opposite strand. Cisplatin-mediated DNA damage, which causes intrastrand crosslinks between adjacent guanine residues, also facilitated Endo G digestion, indicating that the enzyme can recognize local distortions in the duplex DNA introduced by adducts. These nucleolytic properties of Endo G in vitro suggest its possible involvement in the maintenance of mtDNA by eliminating defective genomes from the multicopy pool.