Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Dec;35(12):973-982.
doi: 10.1002/chir.23612. Epub 2023 Jul 28.

Circular dichroism and UV-Vis detection of UV-induced damage to nucleic acids

Reed C Dowling  1 , Gregory T Carroll  2 , David L Kirschman  2 , Mark B Masthay  1 , Angela Mammana  1
Affiliations

Circular dichroism and UV-Vis detection of UV-induced damage to nucleic acids

Reed C Dowling et al. Chirality. 2023 Dec.

Abstract

In this report, we demonstrate that CD spectroscopy can be used as a tool to detect changes to DNA upon irradiation with UV light. We follow the spectroscopic response of DNA samples irradiated at selected exposure times with both CD and UV-Vis spectroscopy. We analyzed four different nucleic acids to evaluate the effect of the sequence on photodegradation. Only one polymer, calf thymus DNA, was a natural nucleic acid and contained all four nucleobases. The other three were synthetic polymers and contained only one type of base pair: poly (deoxyadenylic-deoxythymidylic) acid [poly (dA-dT)2 ] and poly (deoxyadenylic acid) · poly (deoxythymidylic acid) [poly (dA) · poly (dT)], which contained only adenine and thymine; poly (deoxyguanylic-deoxycytidylic) acid [poly (dG-dC)2 ], which contained only guanine and cytosine. CD and UV-Vis spectra showed sequence dependent changes. In particular, poly (dA) · poly (dT) undergoes changes more rapidly than the other sequences investigated. The CD spectrum of poly (dA) · poly (dT) gradually undergoes an inversion, suggesting a change in helicity, before disappearing due to the unfolding of the double strand.

Keywords: B-DNA; circular dichroism; germicide; nucleic acids; photodegradation; secondary structure.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Kowalski W. Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation handbook: UVGI for air and surface disinfection. Springer Science & Business Media; 2010. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-01999-9
    1. Reed NG. The history of ultraviolet germicidal irradiation for air disinfection. Public Health Rep. 2010;125(1):15-27. doi:10.1177/003335491012500105
    1. Barnewall RE, Bischoff WE. Removal of SARS-CoV-2 bioaerosols using ultraviolet air filtration. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2021;12(8):1-8. doi:10.1017/ice.2021.103
    1. Raeiszadeh M, Adeli B. A critical review on ultraviolet disinfection systems against Covid-19 outbreak: applicability, validation and safety considerations. ACS Photon. 2020;7(11):2941-2951. doi:10.1021/acsphotonics.0c01245
    1. Kumar A, Sagdeo A, Sagdeo PR. Possibility of using ultraviolet radiation for disinfecting the novel COVID-19. Photodiagnosis Photodyn Ther. 2021;34:102234. doi:10.1016/j.pdpdt.2021.102234

Publication types

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources