Evaluating Template-Switch Mutations (TSM) in E.Coli After Treatment with Dexamethasone, an FDA-Approved Anti-Inflammatory Drug

Abstract

This presentation will provide an overview of an experiment to discover potential side-effects of current FDA-approved drugs, Dexamethasone, that can cause mutations in DNA. Mutations in DNA can change the structure and function of cells. DNA can transform into non-β form structures that stall replication and cause genomic instability. Quasi-palindromes (QP) are imperfect inverted repeats of DNA sequences which can block the DNA replication fork during DNA synthesis. If the DNA replication fork is blocked by quasi-palindrome structures, DNA polymerase can use an alternative method to continue DNA replication, called “template-switching,” which results in a perfect palindrome – a perfect inverted repeat of DNA. There is limited research for template-switch mutagenesis which tests selected FDA-approved drugs to understand the effect of TSM. The goal of this research project is to investigate the cellular effects of Dexamethasone, an anti-inflammatory glucocorticoid, which prevents the release of DNA, in quasi-palindrome mutations using E. coli as the model organism. The aim is to understand the consequence of selected drugs in template-switching quasi-palindrome mutations to increase our knowledge of the potential side effects for current FDA-approved drugs.