Cross-linking effect repair

Comparable experiments with the nucleic acids have confirmed that cycloaddition of their pyrimidine bases also occurs with ultraviolet light and effectively cross-links the chains, a process obviously quite inimical to the functioning of the DNA (see Section 25-13B). A remarkable and not well understood aspect of photobiology is the repair and defense mechanism both plants and animals possess to minimize the damaging effects of radiation. 

Mechanism of action The nitrosoureas exert cytotoxic effects by an alkylation that cross-links strands of DNA to inhibit its replication and, eventually, RNA and protein synthesis. Although they alkylate DNA in resting cells, cytotoxicity is expressed only on cell division therefore nondividing cells can escape death if DNA repair occurs. 

An intrastrand cross-link formed by cisplatin and adjacent guanine residues causes an unusally distorted base pair (bp) step, known as the Lippard bp step. A study of the effects of neighbouring nucleotides to the cross-linked G G has shown that the 3 -nucleotide has little effect, but the 5 -nucleotide has a dramatic effect. The 5 residue always maintains an S pucker, but the canting varies, depending on the substituent. Bleomycin causes two major lesions to DNA, formation of a 4 -keto abasic site and strand cleavage to yield a 3 -phosphog-lycolate and a 5 -phosphate. As a model for the 4 -keto abasic site, an NMR structure of a 13-mer DNA duplex containing an abasic site has been reported." It was found that for both the a- and p-anomers, the abasic site was extrahelical, and that the duplex showed very little distortion to the backbone. This was discussed in terms of repair of such lesions in vivo. 

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