Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-nr4z6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-15T00:05:52.026Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Radiation effects in biological systems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2011

Martyn C. R. Symons
Martyn C. R. Symons
Affiliation:
Department of Chemistry, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK
Get access

Synopsis

This paper presents a chemist's view of the action of ionising radiation on matter with a range of simple examples. Attention is given to the ways in which electron spin resonance spectroscopy (which is described briefly) can be harnessed to give useful information about the initial stages of radiation damage. The effects of radiation are generally indiscriminate and hence damage to water is of special importance in biological systems. Water-derived free radicals will attack biomolecules (the indirect effect) and this mechanism is compared with direct damage events. Also, examples are given of some remarkably discriminate radiation-induced reactions.

Specific attention is given to radiation-induced damage to proteins, and especially to aqueous DNA and DNA in chromatin and in cells. The importance of DNA strand-breaks is discussed in relation to both the production of mutations and cell death.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Section B: Biological Sciences , Volume 102: Oxygen and Environmental Stress in Plants , 1994 , pp. 81 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Atkins, P. W. & Symons, M. C. R., 1967. The structure of inorganic radicals. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Bamford, C. H., Jenkins, A. D., Ingram, D. J. E., & Symons, M. C. R., 1955. Detection of free radicals in polyacrylonitrile by paramagnetic resonance, Nature 175, 894–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartels, D. M., Trifunac, A. D. & Lawler, R. G. 1985. Electron T1 measurements in short-lived free radicals by dynamic polarisation recovery. Journal of Chemical Physics 83, 2686–707.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernhard, W. A. 1989. Sites of electron trapping in DNA as determined by ESR of one-electron reduced oligonucleotides. Journal of Physical Chemistry 93, 2187–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernhard, W. A. 1990. Initial sites of one electron attachment in DNA. In Fielden, E. M. & O'Neill, P. (Eds) The early effects of radiation on DNA, Vol. 54, pp. 141–54. NATO ASI Series.Google Scholar
Besley, S., Cullis, P. M., Partridge, R., Symons, M. C. R., & Wheelhouse, R. T. 1990. Motion of polyammonium ions on aqueous solutions of DNA. Chemical Physics Letters 165, 120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boon, P. J., Cullis, P. M., Symons, M. C. R., & Wren, B. W. 1984. Effects of ionising radiation on DNA and related systems: the role of oxygen. Journal of the Chemical Society, Perkin Transactions II, 1393.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brivati, J. A., Symons, M. C. R., Tinling, D. J. A., & Wardale, H. W. 1967. Electron spin resonance studies of hydroxyl radicals in irradiated ice crystals. Journal of the Chemical Society, Faraday Transactions 63, 2112–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cullis, P. M., McClymont, J. D. & Symons, M. C. R. 1990. Electron conduction and trapping in DNA: an ESR study. Journal of the Chemical Society, Faraday Transactions 86, 591–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fessenden, R. W., Verma, N. C. & Naresh, C. 1977. Studies of the reactions of hydrogen atoms by time-resolved ESR spectroscopy. Faraday Discussions of the Chemical Society 63, 104–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gabr, I., Rai, U. S. & Symons, M. C. R. 1993. Conversion of nitric oxide into a nitroxide radical using 2,3-dimethylbutadiene and 2,5-dimethylhexadiene. Journal of the Chemical Society, Chemical Communications 1099–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Htittermann, J., Rohrig, M. & Kohnlein, W. 1992. International Journal of Radiation Biology 61, 299–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, G. D. D., Lea, J. S., Symons, M. C. R. & Taiwo, F. A. 1987. Structure and mobility of electron gain and loss centres in proteins. Nature 330, 772.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nelson, D. J. and Symons, M. C. R. 1977. Electron capture processes inorganic phosphates: an ESR study. Journal of the Chemical Society, Perkin Transactions 2, 287.Google Scholar
Nelson, D. J., Symons, M. C. R. & Wyatt, J. L. 1993. Electron paramagnetic resonance studies of irradiated D-glucose-6-phosphate ions: relevance to DNA. Journal of the Chemical Society, Faraday Transactions 89, 1955–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Neill, P., Al-Kazwini, A. T., Lan, E. J. & Fielden, E. M. 1990. Early chemical events in the development of radiation damage in DNA. In Fielden, E. M. & O'Neill, P. (Eds) The early effects of radiation on DNA, Vol. 54, pp. 125–40. NATO ASI Series.Google Scholar
Peterson, R. L., Symons, M. C. R. & Taiwo, F. A. 1989. Application of radiation and ESR spectroscopy to the study of ferryl myoglobin. Journal of the Chemical Society, Faraday Transactions 1, 85, 2435-43.Google Scholar
Rice-Evans, C. A., Diplock, A. T. & Symons, M. C. R. 1991. Techniques in free radical research. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Saenger, W. 1984. Principles of nucleic acid structure. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schulte-Frohlinde, D., Simic, M. G. & Gorner, H. 1990. Laser-induced strand break formation in DNA and polynucleotides. Photochemistry and Photobiology 52, 1137–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sevilla, M. D., Becker, D., Yan, M. & Summerfield, S. R. 1991. Relative abundance of primary ion radicals in irradiated DNA: cytosine vs. thymine anion and guanine vs. adenine cation. Journal of Physical Chemistry 95, 3409–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steenken, S. 1989. Purine bases, nucleosides and nucleotides: aqueous solution redox chemistry and transformation reactions of their radical cations and e- and OH adducts. Chemical Reviews 89, 503–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Symons, M. C. R. 1978. Chemical and biochemical aspects of ESR spectroscopy. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.Google Scholar
Symons, M. C. R. 1987. Application of ESR spectroscopy to the study of ionising radiation on DNA and DNA complexes. Journal of the Chemical Society, Faraday Transactions 1 83, 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Symons, M. C. R. 1988. Redox processes in rigid matrices with reference to irradiated nitromethane. Faraday Discussions of the Chemical Society 86, 99–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Symons, M. C. R. 1990. The role of radiation induced charge migration within DNA. In Fielden, E. M. & O'Neill, P. (Ed.) The early effects of radiation on DNA, Vol. 54, pp. 111–24. NATO ASI Series.Google Scholar
Symons, M. C. R. 1994. Direct and indirect damage by ionising radiation. Radiation Physics and Chemistry 43, 403–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Symons, M. C. R. & Peterson, R. L. 1978a. Electron capture by oxyhaemoglobin: an ESR study. Proceedings of the Royal Society, London B 201, 285.Google Scholar
Symons, M. C. R. & Peterson, R. L. 1978b. Electron capture at the iron-oxygen centre in crystals of oxymyoglobin studied by ESR spectroscopy. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 535, 241–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Symons, M. C. R. & Taiwo, F. A. 1992. Radiation damage to proteins: an ESR study. Journal of the Chemical Society, Perkin Transactions 1413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Symons, M. C. R., Taiwo, F. A. & Svistunenko, D. A. 1993. EPR studies of hole mobility and localisation in haemoglobin. Journal of the Chemical Society, Faraday Transactions. In press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ward, J. F. 1990. The yield of DNA double-strand breaks produced intracellularly by ionising radiation. International Journal of Radiation Biology 7, 1141–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar