DNA damage by various forms of active oxygens and its inhibition by different scavengers using plasmid DNA

The degree of DNA damage by the treatment with various molecular species of active oxygen and its inhibition by pretreatment with different scavengers were evaluated using pUC19 plasmid DNA. DNA damage caused by O2-. generated by xanthine-xanthine oxidase system (X-XOD), .OH by Fenton reactions, and OCl- by NaOCl involved the generation of open circle DNA demonstrating single strand breaks. Catalase (Cat), diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DETAPAC), desferroxiamine (Desferal), dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and ethanol (EtOH) all inhibited 60-80% of DNA damage by the generated O2-.. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) inhibited all DNA damages by O2-.. Cat, DETAPAC and Desferal effectively inhibited DNA break by .OH; complete inhibition of .OH-induced DNA break was achieved by addition of DMSO and EtOH. Desferal and EtOH completely inhibited DNA damage by OCl-. These findings suggested that metal ions are associated with the mechanism of DNA damage by all forms of active oxygen species.