1. The Role of Oxygen in Photoinduced DNA Damage
Maha Zewail Foote, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Southwestern University
We aim to investigate the mechanism of photoinduced DNA damage induced by the anthracycline antibiotic daunomycin. In order to obtain a more detailed picture, we quantitatively assessed the types of DNA damage, such as strand breaks, oxidized bases, and abasic sites, that are generated under these conditions. We have successfully characterized the DNA damage profile using a plasmid relaxation assay showing that photoexcitation of daunomycin leads to oxidative DNA damage in a dose and irradiation time dependent manner and that oxidized purines are substantially produced under these conditions.
DNA ?
UV light
Oxidative DNA damage
Superoxide anion
SOD
+ SOD
Daunomycin
Photoexcitation of daunomycin also leads to superoxide anion formation. Our next goal is to investigate the involvement of reactive oxygen species in DNA damage.