Sugars ionizing radiation

Unbranched, six-carbon sugars and their derivatives are considerably more stable toward ionizing radiations in the solid state than in solution. This behavior could be anticipated, since recombination of radicals initially formed by irradiation, aided by the cage effect of the lattice, would reduce the extent of the reaction with the solids, compared with similar... 

Figure 2 DNA damage induced by ionizing radiation. A) DNA damage and repair. All the constitutive elements of DNA (sugar-phosphate backbone and bases) are possibly modified by ionizing radiation. Single strand breaks (SSB), oxidized bases and abasic site are processed by base excision repair (BER), double strand breaks (DSB) by homologous recombination and non homologous end joining (HR and NHEJ) and DNA-protein crosslinks by nucleotide excision repair (NER). B) Quantitative measurement of radiation-induced and spontaneous DNA damage.

Regulus, P., Duroux, B., Bayle, P.-A., Favier, A., Cadet, J., and Ravanat, J.-L. (2007) Oxidation of the sugar moiety of DNA by ionizing radiation or bleomycin could induce the formation of a cluster DNA lesion. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sri. USA, 104, 14032-14037. 

Since sugar radicals are known precursors in mechanisms leading to strand breaks [1, 7], it is of importance to determine the most probable site of hole localization on the DNA backbone following exposure to ionizing radiations and to understand the chemistry that ensues. 

Sonntag, C.v. and Schuke-Frohlinde, D. (1978) Radiation-induced degradation of the sugar in model compounds and in DNA, in Effects of Ionizing Radiation on DNA (ed. A.J. Bertincharnps), Springer Berlin, p. 204. 

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