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DNA strand break dependence on Tris and arginine scavenger concentrations under ultra-soft X-ray irradiation: the contribution of secondary arginine radicals

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Abstract

In this study, we used a bench-top cold-cathode ultra-soft X-ray (USX) generator to expose aqueous DNA plasmid solutions to low-LET radiation under various scavenging conditions. Single- and double-strand breaks were assessed using classic gel electrophoresis quantification of linear, circular and supercoiled plasmid DNA topologies. With their very low penetration range in water, USX can only interact with matter up to short distances, of the order of 50 μm. We validated a stirring procedure which makes it possible to expose 100 µL of aqueous samples (2 mm thick). The scavenging of OH radicals by Tris buffer was studied at ambient temperature under aerobic conditions and compared to data gathered in the literature. A very good agreement was found with the rare data dealing with DNA plasmid exposed to Al Kα photons at low temperature (T ≤ 277 K), which therefore validated the experimental procedure. The yields for DNA single-strand breaks determined during this study enabled the ratio of indirect to direct effects to be determined at 96.2 %, in good agreement with the value of 97.7 % stemming from a study based on γ-ray irradiation of frozen solutions of plasmid DNA. Then, arginine was used both to create a “biological-like” chemical environment around the DNA plasmids and as an OH radical scavenger, in vitro. Although arginine has a greater scavenging (protecting) power than Tris, surprisingly, it led to higher rates of strand breakage. Based on the specific binding modes of arginine to DNA, we suggest that the side effects observed are due to the presence of arginine near to, but also inside, the DNA double helix.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the PROFAS (French–Algerian Collaboration program) for the financial Grant allocated to M. Souici in order to work during 18 months in our laboratory in France. We are particularly indebted to Dr. Peter Winterton (Toulouse University, France) for correcting and improving the language of the present article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UMR CNRS 6249 Chrono-Environnement, Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 16 route de Gray, 25030, Besançon Cedex, France

    Mounir Souici, Talat Tariq Khalil, Omar Boulanouar, Christophe Mavon & Michel Fromm

  2. Laboratoire de Physique des Rayonnements et Applications, Université de Jijel, B.P. 98, 18000, Ouled Aissa, Jijel, Algeria

    Mounir Souici & Abdelfettah Belafrites

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  1. Mounir Souici
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  2. Talat Tariq Khalil
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Correspondence to Michel Fromm.

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Souici, M., Khalil, T.T., Boulanouar, O. et al. DNA strand break dependence on Tris and arginine scavenger concentrations under ultra-soft X-ray irradiation: the contribution of secondary arginine radicals. Radiat Environ Biophys 55, 215–228 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00411-016-0642-9

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