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    Home > Biochemistry News > Biotechnology News > A new study discovers previously unnoticed damage mechanisms from radioactive radiation

    A new study discovers previously unnoticed damage mechanisms from radioactive radiation

    • Last Update: 2022-01-09
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
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    Sometimes, radiation damage is not large enough—especially when it comes to destroying tumor tissue with ionizing radiation
    .


    In radiotherapy, substances that can particularly enhance radiation damage in tumor tissues are used


    Excess energy causes Coulomb explosion

    The DNA double helix structure of the genome is similar to a rope ladder composed of nucleic acid base pairs
    .


    "Because it is difficult to do experiments with free nucleic acids, we initially studied p-benzene as a model system," Dorn explained


    So far, scientists have always believed that the damage of ionizing radiation to biomolecules is mainly indirect
    .


    High-energy radiation can also ionize water, which is the main component of cells and surrounds biological molecules such as DNA


    The fatal consequences of multiple DNA breaks

    "It is unclear how the intermolecular Coulomb decay affects the DNA chain," Dorn said
    .


    If there is a single-strand break in the DNA ladder, the consequences should not be too serious


    In order to better assess the effects of radiation on genetic material, Don's team will now use electron bombardment on nucleic acids under a reaction microscope
    .


    "This is experimentally challenging because we have to heat the nuclear base to vaporize it," Dorn explained


    Journal Reference :

    1. Xueguang Ren, Jiaqi Zhou, Enliang Wang, Tao Yang, Zhongfeng Xu, Nicolas Sisourat, Thomas Pfeifer, Alexander Dorn.


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