Significance of 8-oxoG in the spectrum of DNA damages caused by ionising radiation of different quality

The yields and composition of DNA damages caused by ionising radiation depends on radiation quality. With increasing light energy transfer (LET), the proportion of isolated DNA damages with respect to cluster damaged sites decreases. Non-double strand break complex damages are induced by gamma radiation in mammalian cells at least four times more frequently that prompt DSB. The most important product of oxidative damage to DNA bases is 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-guanine (8-oxoG). The modelling of DNA damage induced by ionising radiation of different qualities was performed to assess frequencies and composition of complex damages containing 8-oxoG. The occurrence of clusters containing 8-oxoG increases from 6 to 11% for LET in the range 0.4-160 keV μm-1. Distributions of single strand break (SSB) on opposite DNA strand around induced 8-oxoG have similar shape for different ionising radiations, but differ in their occurrence in the whole spectrum of DNA damages. The most probable configuration is a strand break localised at position ±3 bases from 8-oxoG. (authors)