Sensors for DNA Damage

Fojta M (2002) Electrochemical sensors for DNA interactions and damage. Electroanalysis 14 1449-1463. Palecek E (1983) Modern polarographic (voltammetric) techniques in biochemistry and molecular biology. II. Analysis of macromolecules. In Milazzo G (ed.) Topics in Bioelectrochemistry and Bioenergetics, vol. 5, pp. 65-151. Chichester WUey. 

In this paper, we briefly summarize the basic electrochemical properties of NAs and their components, and survey the recent trends in the electrochemical analysis of NAs, including labeling of NAs with electroactive markers, covalent and noncovalent immobilization of NA at the electrode surfaces, and development of sensors for DNA hybridization and DNA damage. We wish to show that electrodes are important tools, useful in biochemical... 

Fojta M, Danhel A, Havran L, Vyskocil V (2015) Recent progress in electrochemical sensors and assays for DNA damage and repair. Trends Anal Chem. doi 10.1016/j.trac.2015.11.018... 

A practical approach for toxicity screening combines bioactivation and DNA damage detection into a single biosensor for toxicity screening. To make these types of sensors, ultrathin films (20—4-0 nm thick) containing myoglobin or cytochrome P450cam and DNA were... 

Wang, J. Rivas, G. Ozsoz, M. Grant, D.H. Cai, X. Parrado, C. Microfabricated electrochemical sensor for the detection of radiation-induced DNA damage. Anal. Chem. 1997, 69, 1457-1460. Steenken, S. Jovanovic, S.V. How easily oxidizable is DNA One-electron oxidation potentials of adenosine and guanosine radicals in aqueous solution. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1997, 119, 617-618. 

Figure 1. Cellular response to DNA damage. Sensor proteins are able to detect the presence of DNA damage and alert the cellular machinery so that the cell can face the stress and protects itself. The sensor then activates a transducer and through a series of proteins activation by phosphorylations, DNA integrity checkpoints (red arrow), in charge ofthe cell cycle control are activated and play their role which is to stop the cell cycle progression In order to allow repair to fully operate. Indeed, DNA replication should not occur on damaged DNA because of possible mistakes when copying modified bases, so the G l/S interphase checkpoint prevents the cell to enter into S-phase and to start replication. The G2 checkpoint verifies DNA for the presence of double strand breaks and incomplete replication, so that an altered DNA copy is not transmitted to the daughter cell.

Application areas for DNA biosensors include the detection of chemically induced DNA damage by toxic compounds and the detection of pathogenic microorganisms through the hybridization of species-specific DNA sequences. However, this section will only concentrate on the development of DNA-based sensors for toxic compound detection as microorganism detection is not covered in this chapter. 

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