Juan Chai,Yongling Li,Huichen Wang,Jianqi Cui
A numerous endogenous and exogenous agents can cause DNA damage which would affect the integrity of genomic materials inside the body. The response to DNA damage is the activation of DNA damage sensing protein ATM and ATR which trigger the cascade reactivation of repair system to fix the damaged DNA. If the damaged DNA was not completely repaired or the ability of DNA repair was deficient in the neuron, it would cause a series of fateful consequences such as cell death, apoptosis or oncogenesis. The deficiency in DNA repair also causes many neurodegenerative diseases. Purα is a ubiquitous nucleic acid-binding protein that was originally purified from the mouse brain based on its ability to bind to a DNA sequence derived from the promoter of the mouse myelin basic protein gene. It is reported that Purα also played an important role in DNA repair. In this review, we will discuss the importance of DNA damage and repair in central nervous system, the relationship between the DNA damage and neurodegeneration as well as the function of Purα, especially, the role it played in the DNA repair.
