DNA radiosensitization by terpyridine-platinum: damage induced by 5 and 10 eV transient anions.

Chemoradiation therapy (CRT), which combines a chemotherapeutic drug with ionizing radiation (IR), is the most common cancer treatment. At the molecular level, the binding of Pt-drugs to DNA sensitizes cancer cells to IR, mostly by increasing the damage induced by secondary low-energy (0-20 eV) electrons (LEEs). We investigate such enhancements by binding terpyridine-platinum (Tpy-Pt) to supercoiled plasmid DNA.

Role of Transient Anions in Chemoradiation Therapy: Base Modifications, Cross-Links, and Cluster Damages Induced to Cisplatin-DNA Complexes by 1-20 eV Electrons.

The molecular mechanism of platinum-based drugs in concomitant chemoradiation therapy relies on enhancement of DNA damage in cancer cells, particularly that of detrimental clustered lesions and cross-links induced by the abundant low-energy electrons (LEEs) generated by ionizing radiation. We provide the complete 1-20 eV electron-energy dependence of the yields of all conformational LEE-induced lesions to biological DNA, when it binds to five molecules of the chemotherapeutic drug cisplatin. Recording at 1 eV intervals clearly show that the enhancement of all lesions is particularly intense at the energies of core-excited transient molecular anions (i.