Never Cared for What They Do: High Structural Stability of Guanine-Quadruplexes in the Presence of Strand-Break Damage
Molecules
; 27(10):3256, 2022.
Article
in English
| ProQuest Central | ID: covidwho-1871385
ABSTRACT
DNA integrity is an important factor that assures genome stability and, more generally, the viability of cells and organisms. In the presence of DNA damage, the normal cell cycle is perturbed when cells activate their repair processes. Although efficient, the repair system is not always able to ensure complete restoration of gene integrity. In these cases, mutations not only may occur, but the accumulation of lesions can either lead to carcinogenesis or reach a threshold that induces apoptosis and programmed cell death. Among the different types of DNA lesions, strand breaks produced by ionizing radiation are the most toxic due to the inherent difficultly of repair, which may lead to genomic instability. In this article we show, by using classical molecular simulation techniques, that compared to canonical double-helical B-DNA, guanine-quadruplex (G4) arrangements show remarkable structural stability, even in the presence of two strand breaks. Since G4-DNA is recognized for its regulatory roles in cell senescence and gene expression, including oncogenes, this stability may be related to an evolutionary cellular response aimed at minimizing the effects of ionizing radiation.
Chemistry--Organic Chemistry; guanine quadruplexes; DNA strand breaks; molecular modeling and simulation; Telomerase; Guanine; Lesions; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Carcinogens; Deoxyribonucleic acid--DNA; DNA damage; Genomes; Damage; Apoptosis; Ionizing radiation; Carcinogenesis; Kinases; Senescence; DNA structure; Radiation; Oxidative stress; Cell death; Gene expression; Repair; Genomic instability; Viral infections; Mutation; Integrity; Structural stability; Cell cycle
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Collection:
Databases of international organizations
Database:
ProQuest Central
Language:
English
Journal:
Molecules
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
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