Mechanism of DNA and RNA degradation over a photoactive TiO₂@SiO₂-coated fabric

Contamination of biochemical diagnostic laboratories with impurity nucleic acids (NAs) strongly affects tests using highly sensitive microbiological methods such as polymerase chain reaction because these NAs can contaminate test samples or reagents and lead to false positive results of analysis. NAs, as biomacromolecules, remain stable on the surface of many materials for a long time, and special treatments are needed to achieve the complete degradation of NAs on the material surface. In this study, we investigated the degradation of DNA fragments, genomic DNA, ribosomal RNA, and small nuclear RNA on the UVA-irradiated surface of photoactive self-cleaning textile material prepared via the functionalization of cotton/polyester blended fabric with TiO₂ nanoparticles using a silicon binder. Special techniques using enzymes that can repair the correct structure of NAs were employed to discover the mechanism of photocatalytic NA degradation over TiO₂@SiO₂-coated fabric. The results of this study show that the decrease in the number of NA molecules detected using PCR occurs due to the accumulation of oxidative damage to nitrogenous bases and the appearance of both single-strand and double-strand breaks in the NA backbone.