Detecting DNA depurination with solid-state nanopores

PLoS One. 2014 Jul 2;9(7):e101632. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0101632. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Among the different types of DNA damage that occur endogenously in the cell, depurination is especially prevalent. These lesions can initiate mutagenesis and have been implicated in a variety of diseases, including cancer. Here, we demonstrate a new approach for the detection of depurination at the single-molecule scale using solid-state nanopores. We induce depurination in short duplex DNA using acidic conditions and observe that the presence of apurinic sites results in significantly slower dynamics during electrokinetic translocation. This procedure may be valuable as a diagnostic for in situ quantification of DNA depurination.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Apurinic Acid / analysis*
  • Base Sequence
  • Biosensing Techniques
  • DNA / chemistry*
  • Humans
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Nanopores / ultrastructure*
  • Purines / analysis*

Substances

  • Purines
  • Apurinic Acid
  • DNA

Grants and funding

ARH acknowledges start-up funding from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine. JR and EWT acknowledge funding from the Dr. Arthur and Bonnie Ennis Foundation, Decatur, IL. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.