An automated Fpg-based FADU method for the detection of oxidative DNA lesions and screening of antioxidants

The oxidation of guanine to 8-oxo-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-oxo-dG) is one of the most abundant and best studied oxidative DNA lesions and is commonly used as a biomarker for oxidative stress. Over the last decades, various methods for the detection of DNA oxidation products have been established and optimized. However, some of them lack sensitivity or are prone to artifact formation, while others are time-consuming, which hampers their application in screening approaches. In this study, we present a formamidopyrimidine glycosylase (Fpg)-based method to detect oxidative lesions in isolated DNA using a modified protocol of the automated version of the fluorimetric detection of alkaline DNA unwinding (FADU) method, initially developed for the measurement of DNA strand breaks (Moreno-Villanueva et al., 2009. BMC Biotechnol. 9, 39). The FADU-Fpg method was validated using a plasmid DNA model, mimicking mitochondrial DNA, and the results were correlated to 8-oxo-dG levels as measured by LC–MS/MS. The FADU-Fpg method can be applied to analyze the potential of compounds to induce DNA strand breaks and oxidative lesions, as exemplified here by treating plasmid DNA with the peroxynitrite-generating molecule Sin-1. Moreover, this method can be used to screen DNA-protective effects of antioxidant substances, as exemplified here for a small-molecule, i.e., uric acid, and a protein, i.e., manganese superoxide dismutase, both of which displayed a dose-dependent protection against the generation of oxidative DNA lesions. In conclusion, the automated FADU-Fpg method offers a rapid and reliable measurement for the detection of peroxynitrite-mediated DNA damage in a cell-free system, rendering it an ideal method for screening the DNA-protective effects of antioxidant compounds.Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Grant BU 698/6-1)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant ES002109)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant CA026731

Quantitative analysis of the binding affinity of poly(ADP-ribose) to specific binding proteins as a function of chain length

Poly(ADP-ribose) (PAR) is synthesized by poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases in response to genotoxic stress and interacts non-covalently with DNA damage checkpoint and repair proteins. Here, we present a variety of techniques to analyze this interaction in terms of selectivity and affinity. In vitro synthesized PAR was end-labeled using a carbonyl-reactive biotin analog. Binding of HPLC-fractionated PAR chains to the tumor suppressor protein p53 and to the nucleotide excision repair protein XPA was assessed using a novel electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA). Long ADP-ribose chains (55-mer) promoted the formation of three specific complexes with p53. Short PAR chains (16-mer) were also able to bind p53, yet forming only one defined complex. In contrast, XPA did not interact with short polymer, but produced a single complex with long PAR chains (55-mer). In addition, we performed surface plasmon resonance with immobilized PAR chains, which allowed establishing binding constants and confirmed the results obtained by EMSA. Taken together, we developed several new protocols permitting the quantitative characterization of PAR–protein binding. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the affinity of the non-covalent PAR interactions with specific binding proteins (XPA, p53) can be very high (nanomolar range) and depends both on the PAR chain length and on the binding protein

Constraints on the χ_(c1) versus χ_(c2) polarizations in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

The polarizations of promptly produced χ_(c1) and χ_(c2) mesons are studied using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, in proton-proton collisions at √s=8  TeV. The χ_c states are reconstructed via their radiative decays χ_c → J/ψγ, with the photons being measured through conversions to e⁺e⁻, which allows the two states to be well resolved. The polarizations are measured in the helicity frame, through the analysis of the χ_(c2) to χ_(c1) yield ratio as a function of the polar or azimuthal angle of the positive muon emitted in the J/ψ → μ⁺μ⁻ decay, in three bins of J/ψ transverse momentum. While no differences are seen between the two states in terms of azimuthal decay angle distributions, they are observed to have significantly different polar anisotropies. The measurement favors a scenario where at least one of the two states is strongly polarized along the helicity quantization axis, in agreement with nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics predictions. This is the first measurement of significantly polarized quarkonia produced at high transverse momentum