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Updated: Oct 2, 2026

Advanced Confocal Microscopy Techniques to Study Protein-protein Interactions and Kinetics at DNA Lesions
Published on: November 12, 2017
The role of nucleotide sequence in the immune-active structure photochemically induced in double-stranded DNA by
Abstract:
Pyrimidine, purine, and mixed sequence oligonucleotides from ultraviolet-irradiated DNA were tested for their inhibitory activities on the interaction of [3H]ultraviolet-irradiated DNA with its antibody raised in rabbit. Thymine dimer containing pyrimidine oligonucleotides from irradiated DNA failed to inhibit the interaction, while mixed sequence oligonucleotides, especially those with 8 or more nucleotides, exhibited potent inhibition. Purine clusters from irradiated DNA and mixed sequence oligomers from unirradiated DNA showed no inhibition. Dimerized thymine, which appears to be a critical part of the antigenic determinant, did not inhibit the interaction by itself. The same observations were made for ultraviolet-irradiated thymidine and thymidylic acid. The results suggest that a structure composed of a mixed pyrimidine and purine sequence with a certain chain length seems to be essential for the antigenicity induced in the irradiated DNA. On this nucleotide chain backbone, photochemically modified bases (mostly thymine dimer) can form an immune-active structure.
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