Protection of vanillin derivative VND3207 on plasmid DNA damage induced by different LET ionizing radiation

Objective: To evaluate the radioprotective effect of vanillin derivative VND3207 on DNA damage induced by different LET ionizing radiation. Methods: The plasmid DNA in liquid was irradiated by ⁶⁰Co γ-rays, proton or ⁷Li heavy ion with or without VND3207. The conformation changes of plasmid DNA were assessed by agarose gel electrophoresis and the quantification was done using gel imaging system. Results: The DNA damage induced by proton and ⁷Li heavy ion was much more serious as compared with that by ⁶⁰Co γ-rays, and the vanillin derivative VND3207 could efficiently decrease the DNA damage induced by all three types of irradiation sources, which was expressed as a significantly reduced ratio of open circular form (OC) of plasmid DNA. The radioprotective effect of VND3207 increased with the increasing of drug concentration. The protective efficiencies of 200 μmol/L VND3207 were 85.3% (t =3.70, P=0.033), 73.3% (t=10.58, P=0.017) and 80.4% (t=8.57, P=0.008) on DNA damage induction by 50 Gy of γ-rays, proton and ⁷Li heavy ion, respectively. It seemed that the radioprotection of VND3207 was more effective on DNA damage induced by high LET heavy ion than that by proton. Conclusions: VND3207 has a protective effect against the genotoxicity of different LET ionizing radiation, especially for γ-rays and 7 Li heavy ion. (authors)