Mammalian apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 (APEX1) is a small pleiotropic protein, which is composed of 2 distinct structural catalytic domains. The catalytic C-terminal region of APEX1 exhibits different nucleic acid enzymatic activities. Apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP) endonuclease activity is the predominant nuclease function, with a central role in the base excision repair (BER) pathway. Aside from its canonical function in DNA repair, the APEX1 nuclease domain is also implicated in transcriptional and post-translational regulation. The catalytic N-terminal protein domain of APEX1, known as redox effector function (REF-1), controls the DNA binding activity of multiple transcription factors (TFs) through modulation of their redox status.