Oxidation of DNA: Damage to Nucleobases

摘要

All organisms store the information necessary to main-ntain life in their DNA. Any process that damages DNA,ncausing a loss or corruption of that information, jeopardizesnthe viability of the organism. One-electron oxidation is suchna process. In this Account, we address three of the centralnfeatures of one-electron oxidation of DNA: (i) the migrationnof the radical cation away from the site of its formation; (ii)nthe electronic and structural factors that determine thennucleobases at which irreversible reactions most readilynoccur; (iii) the mechanism of reaction for nucleobase radicalncations.