Cancer Biology: Base Excision Repair

This lecture covers the topics of cancer biology related to base excision repair (BER). It discusses the removal of aberrant bases by DNA glycosylases, the role of AP endonucleases and polymerase B in BER, and the specificity of DNA glycosylases. The lecture also explores the cellular responses to replicative stress and DNA double-strand breaks, the activation of ATM and ATR checkpoint kinases, and the apoptotic caspase cascade. Additionally, it delves into the regulation of p53, the induction of apoptosis by E2F, and the mechanisms of programmed cell death in normal development. The lecture concludes with a discussion on the Bcl-2 family, the release of cytochrome c, and the substrates of caspases.