Detection of UV-induced mutagenic thymine dimer using graphene oxide.

In this paper, we report for the first time that graphene oxide (GO) can interact with mutagenic DNA but not intact DNA. After UV-irradiated fluorophore-linked DNA containing thymine repeats was mixed with GO, a decrease in fluorescence was observed in a time-dependent manner. In contrast, no fluorescence change was observed with intact DNA, indicating that UV irradiation of DNA resulted in the formation of mutagenic bases. Because GO is known to act as a fluorescence quencher, the decreased fluorescence implies adsorption of the UV-irradiated DNA onto GO. It appears that the decreased fluorescence might result from the greater accessibility of hydrophobic methyl groups and phenyl rings of thymine dimers to GO and from deformed DNA structures with less effective charge shielding under salt-containing conditions. Using this affinity of GO for mutagenic DNA, we could detect UV-irradiated DNA at concentrations as low as 100 pM. We were also able to analyze the ability of phototoxic drugs to catalyze the formation of mutagens under UV irradiation with GO. Because our method is highly sensitive and feasible and does not require the pretreatment of DNA, we propose that it could accelerate the screening of potential phototoxic drug candidates that would be able to sensitize mutagenic dsDNA.