Repair by human cells of adenovirus-2 damaged by psoralen plus near ultraviolet light treatment

Abstract

Adenovirus-2 is damaged by treatment with psoralen plus near-ultraviolet (UV) light is shown by reduced ability to infect human fibroblasts. The apparent sensitivity of the virus to this treatment depended upon the strain of cells used. The virus was 3-4 times more sensitive to the treatment when infecting xeroderma pigmentosum (XP complementation groups A or D) fibroblasts than when infecting normal fibroblasts. DNA extracted from virus preparations that had undergone such treatment was analyzed for treatment-induced crosslinks by gel electrophoresis and sedimentation in alkaline sucrose gradients. The fraction of adenovirus DNA molecules remaining non-crosslinked after treatment was found to correlate with the survival of the virus in normal fibroblasts. This result showed that the psoralen plus near-UV treatment gave rise to non-crosslink lesions (presumably psoralen-DNA mono-adducts), that were repairable by normal but not by XP fibroblasts, and suggested the possibility that normal fibroblasts cannot repair this type of crosslink in the DNA of an infecting adenovirion.