Influence of molecular flexibility on DNA radiosensitivity: a simulation study
Language English Country United States Media print
Document type Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
- MeSH
- DNA chemistry radiation effects MeSH
- Nucleic Acid Conformation * MeSH
- Pliability MeSH
- Computer Simulation * MeSH
- DNA Damage radiation effects MeSH
- Probability MeSH
- Radiation Tolerance * MeSH
- Hydrogen MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
- Names of Substances
- DNA MeSH
- Hydrogen MeSH
Radiation damage in DNA is caused mainly by hydroxyl radicals which are generated by ionizing radiation in water and removing hydrogen atoms from the DNA chain. This damage affects certain nucleotide sequences more than others due to differences in the local structure of the DNA chains. This sequence dependence has been analyzed experimentally and calculated theoretically for a rigid DNA model. In this paper we take into account the flexibility of the DNA chain and show how it modifies the strand breakage probabilities. We use a simple harmonic model for DNA flexibility which permits the study of a long (68 base pair) fragment with modest computational effort. The essential influence of flexibility is an increased breakage probability towards the ends of the fragment, which can also be identified in the experimental data.
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