BACKGROUND Asbestos induces DNA and chromosomal damage, but the DNA repair pathways protecting human cells against its genotoxicity are largely unknown. Polymorphisms in XRCC1 have been associated with altered susceptibility to asbestos-related diseases. However, it is unclear whether oxidative DNA damage repaired by XRCC1 contributes to asbestos-induced chromosomal damage. OBJECTIVES We soug...

Background: Exposure to ionizing radiation is known to induce oxidative stress followed by damage to critical biomolecules like lipids, proteins and DNA through radiolysis of cellular water. Since radiation has been widely used as an important tool in therapy of cancer, the detailed investigation regarding the DNA damage and repair kinetics would help to predict the radiation sensitivity of cel...

Ionizing radiation (IR) induces highly cytotoxic double-strand breaks (DSBs) and also clustered oxidized bases in mammalian genomes. Base excision repair (BER) of bi-stranded oxidized bases could generate additional DSBs as repair intermediates in the vicinity of direct DSBs, leading to loss of DNA fragments. This could be avoided if DSB repair via DNA-PK-mediated nonhomologous end joining (NHE...

UNLABELLED There has been extraordinary progress in understanding the roles of lentiviral accessory proteins in antagonizing host antiviral defense proteins. However, the precise primary function of the accessory gene Vpr remains elusive. Here we suggest that engagement with the DNA damage response is an important function of primate lentiviral Vpr proteins because of its conserved function amo...

Low linear energy transfer (LET) ionizing radiation (IR) is an important form of therapy for acute leukemias administered externally or as radioimmunotherapy. IR is also a potential source of DNA damage. High LET IR produces structurally different forms of DNA damage and has emerged as potential treatment of metastatic and hematopoietic malignancies. Therefore, understanding mechanisms of resis...

We present the latest advances of the multiscale approach to radiation damage caused by irradiation of a tissue with energetic ions and report the most recent advances in the calculations of complex DNA damage and the effects of thermal spikes on biomolecules. The multiscale approach aims to quantify the most important physical, chemical, and biological phenomena taking place during and followi...