Quantitative measurement of hydroxyl radical induced DNA double-strand breaks and the effect of N-acetyl-l-cysteine》.pdf

FEBS Letters 580 (2006) 4136–4142 Quantitative measurement of hydroxyl radical induced DNA double-strand breaks and the effect of N-acetyl-LL-cysteine Meihong Su, Yao Yang, Guoliang Yang* Department of Physics, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States Received 12 April 2006; revised 15 June 2006; accepted 16 June 2006 Available online 30 June 2006 Edited by Richard Cogdell erative aging diseases [1,6]. Cells have various antioxidant sys- Abstract Reactive oxygen species, such as hydroxyl or super- oxide radicals, can be generated by exogenous agents as well tems to protect DNA from the oxidative attacks. Endogenous as from normal cellular metabolism. Those radicals are known antioxidants are developed to scavenge radicals and limit their to induce various lesions in DNA, including strand breaks and levels in cells [6]. The well-known endogenous antioxidants in- base modifications. These lesions have been implicated in a vari- clude superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxi- ety of diseases such as cancer, arteriosclerosis, arthritis, neuro- dase, etc. There are also proteins, such as ferritin, that can degenerative disorders and others. To assess these oxidative reduce the production of hydroxyl radicals by chelation of free DNA damages and to evaluate the effects of the antioxidant Fe2+ [7,8]. These systems form the first defense line against N-acetyl-LL-cysteine (NAC), atomic force microscopy (AFM) DNA damages by fr