DNA topoisomerase I and antisense transcription. Homo sapiens

DNA Topoisomerase I (Top1) relaxes DNA supercoiling and is inhibited with high specificity by camptothecin, a natural product of chinese tree Camptotheca acuminata with anticancer activity. Topoisomerase activity is required at transcribing regions to modulate DNA supercoils generated by RNA polymerases. However, Top1 functions at promoters and molecular responses to CPT are not fully understood. We found that camptothecin increases antisense RNA polymerase II transcripts at active divergent CpG-island promoters in a replication-independent manner. Kinetics investigations of the formation of Top1-DNA cleavage complexes and non-B DNA structures showed that CPT interferes with Top1 modulation of negative DNA supercoiling at promoters. The present findings will be a resource to establish the role of such antisense RNAs in transcription regulation and to discover additional components of the response pathway. Moreover, the transcriptional camptothecin effects can be the molecular basis of the therapeutic activity in cancer as well as neurological syndromes.