Chemopreventative strategies targeting the MGMT repair protein: augmented expression in human lymphocytes and tumor cells by ethanolic and aqueous extracts of several Indian medicinal plants

O6-alkylguanines are potent mutagenic, pro-carcinogenic and cytotoxic lesions induced by exogenous and endogenous alkylating agents. A facilitated elimination of these lesions by increasing the activity of O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) is likely to be a beneficial chemoprevention strategy, which, however, has not been examined. Because, a marginal enhancement of this protein may be adequate for genomic protection, we studied...