Advanced Raman spectroscopy detection of oxidative damage in nucleic acid bases: probing chemical changes and intermolecular interactions in guanosine at ultralow concentration

TL;DR

This paper introduces a micro-Raman spectroscopy method combined with ab initio calculations to detect and quantify oxidative damage in nucleotides at ultralow concentrations, with potential applications in cellular damage assessment.

Contribution

It presents a novel spectroscopic approach integrating terahertz Raman signatures and surface-enhanced techniques for sensitive detection of oxidized nucleotides.

Findings

Raman signatures reveal intermolecular guanine assembly in tetrads.

Method detects low concentrations of oxidized nucleotides.

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering improves detection sensitivity.

Abstract

DNA/RNA synthesis precursors are especially vulnerable to damage induced by reactive oxygen species occurring following oxidative stress. Guanosine triphosphates are the prevalent oxidized nucleosites, which can be misincorporated during replication, leading to mutations and cell death. Here, we present a novel method based on micro-Raman spectroscopy, combined with ab initio calculations, for the identification, detection, and quantification of low concentrations of oxidized nucleotides. We also show that the Raman signature in the terahertz spectral range (< 100 cm$^{-1}$) contains information on the intermolecular assembly of guanine in tetrads, which allows to further boost the oxidative damage detection limit. Eventually, we provide evidence that similar analyses can be carried out on samples in very small volumes at very low concentrations by exploiting the high sensitivity of Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering combined with properly designed superhydrophobic substrates. These results pave the way for employing such advanced spectroscopic methods for quantitatively sensing the oxidative damage of nucleotides in the cell.