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The toxicity and DNA-damage mechanism of α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles

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Abstract

This study examined the toxicity of α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles and the mechanism of DNA photocatalytic oxidation on the surface of α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles irradiated by visible light. During oxidation, the extent of DNA damage was measured using high-performance liquid chromatography and the intermediates were identified by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry. The concentration of H2O2 was determined using the catalytic method with horseradish peroxidase and N,N-diethyl-p-phenylenediamine (POD-DPD), and the concentration of OH free radicals was measured using fluorescence spectrophotometry. The results indicate that the reaction of OH free radicals generated from H2O2 by light-activated α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles is the primary cause of DNA damage and that the detected intermediates during the photocatalytic degradation of DNA were mainly produced by the hydroxylation of the DNA fragments. This work demonstrates that the α-Fe2O3 photocatalytic system provides a good model for investigating the toxicology of nanoparticles that produce OH free radicals after light activation. The toxicity of α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles is of concern to human health because of the damage it can cause to DNA.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Prof. Haobo Hou from Wuhan University for helping with the experiments. This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21407093, 21377067, 21177072, and 21207079), the Natural Science Foundation for Innovation Group of Hubei Province, China (2015CFA021) and the Talent Research Start Funds of China Three Gorges University, China (No. KJ2014B085).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Engineering Research Center of Eco-environment in Three Gorges Reservoir Region, Ministry of Education, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, Hubei, 443002, China

    Xiaoxing Wang, Yan Gu, Davidmark Johnson, Chuncheng Chen & Yingping Huang

  2. Collaborative Innovation Center for Geo-Hazards and Eco-Environment in Three Gorges Area, Huber province, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, Hubei, 443002, China

    Xiaoxing Wang, Yan Gu, Davidmark Johnson, Chuncheng Chen & Yingping Huang

  3. Second College of Clinical Medicine, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, Hubei, 443001, China

    Xiaoxing Wang

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  1. Xiaoxing Wang
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  2. Yan Gu
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  3. Davidmark Johnson
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  4. Chuncheng Chen
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Correspondence to Yingping Huang.

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Wang, X., Gu, Y., Johnson, D. et al. The toxicity and DNA-damage mechanism of α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles. Med Chem Res 26, 384–389 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00044-016-1753-1

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