Response to Zhang:another trick of heavy isotopes

摘要

Zhang's letter raises an interesting topic,partially discussed in Shchepinov's papers on the possible application of heavy isotopes to prevent ageing[1,2].The concept is to use the deuteration of DNA purines and pyrimidines to slow down their tautomeric transformations,and thereby slow the rate of mutations.To achieve this,Zhang proposes replacing the exchangeable hydrogen atoms with deuterium atoms[3].