Cold atmospheric-pressure plasma induces DNA–protein crosslinks through protein oxidation

Abstract

Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS and RNS) generated by cold atmospheric-pressure plasma could damage genomic DNA, although the precise types of these DNA damage induced by plasma are poorly characterized. Understanding plasma-induced DNA damage will help to elucidate the biological effect of plasma and guide the application of plasma in ROS-based therapy. In this study, it was shown that ROS and RNS generated by physical plasma could efficiently induce DNA-protein crosslinks (DPCs) in bacteria, yeast, and human cells. An in vitro assay showed that plasma treatment resulted in the formation of covalent DPCs by activating proteins to crosslink with DNA. Mass spectrometry and hydroperoxide analysis detected oxidation products induced by plasma. DPC formation were alleviated by singlet oxygen scavenger, demonstrating the importance of singlet oxygen in this process. These results suggested the roles of DPC formation in DNA damage induced by plasma, which could improve the understanding of the biological effect of plasma and help to develop a new strategy in plasma-based therapy including infection and cancer therapy.

Keywords:

• Cold atmospheric-pressure plasma
• DNA damage
• DNA–protein crosslinks
• protein oxidation
• reactive oxygen species

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr Huiqiang Lou for the gift of S. cerevisiae BY4741.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [51477136, 51521065, and 51307134], State Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Power Equipment (EIPE14123) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.