Oligonucleotides can bind as third strands of DNA in a sequence-specific manner to form triple helices. Psoralen-conjugated, triplex-forming oligonucleotides (TFOs) have been used for the site-specific modification of DNA to inhibit transcription and to target mutations to selected genes. Such strategies, however, must take into account the ability of the cell to repair the triplex-directed lesion. We report experiments showing that the pattern of mutations produced by triplex-targeted psoralen adducts in an SV40 shuttle vector in monkey COS cells can be influenced by the associated third strand. Mutations induced by psoralen adducts in the context of a TFO of length 10 were the same as those generated by isolated adducts but were found to be different from those generated in the presence of a TFO of length 30 at the same target site. In complementary experiments, HeLa whole cell extracts were used to directly assess repair of the TFO-directed psoralen adducts in vitro. Excision of the damaged DNA was inhibited in the context of the 30-mer TFO, but not the 10-mer. These results suggest that an extended triple helix of length 30, which exceeds the typical size of the nucleotide excision repair patch in mammalian cells, can alter repair of an associated psoralen adduct. We present a model correlating these results and proposing that the incision steps in nucleotide excision repair in mammalian cells can be blocked by the presence of a third strand of sufficient length and binding affinity, thereby changing the pattern of mutations. These results may have implications for the use of triplex-forming oligonucleotides for genetic manipulation, and they may lead to the use of such oligonucleotides as tools to probe DNA repair pathways.

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