"Reading Cancer Risk"...Technology Developed to Count the Number of Damaged DNA Fragments [Reading Science]

KRISS Achieves Ultra-Precise Analysis of Trace DNA Damage
Detection Sensitivity Improved 22-Fold Over Previous Methods

The Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) has developed an ultra-sensitive analytical technology capable of precisely measuring even the number of extremely small “damaged DNA fragments” generated during the process of cellular DNA repair. The research team expects that this technology can be utilized in diagnosing individual cancer risk and in studies on personalized cancer therapy.

DNA is damaged every day by factors such as ultraviolet (UV) radiation, smoking, chemicals, and metabolic activities within the body. Instead of leaving these damages unattended, cells activate the “nucleotide excision repair (NER)” system, which cuts out the damaged regions and replaces them with new DNA. The small DNA fragments excised during this process are considered a key indicator showing how quickly and efficiently a cell repairs DNA damage.

Schematic diagram of the ultra-sensitive detection and quantification process of damaged DNA fragments (sedDNA). It illustrates the principle of precisely measuring the amount of damaged DNA by separating fragments generated from UV-damaged DNA and then using a competitive immune response. Provided by the research team.

However, existing technologies have had limitations in accurately quantifying such minute amounts of damaged DNA fragments. Conventional methods detect DNA fragments by attaching labeling substances to their ends, but if the ends of the fragments degrade over time, even actually existing damaged DNA fragments may be omitted from analysis.

“Measuring Down to the Number of Damaged DNA Fragments”

To overcome this, the KRISS research team introduced a “competitive immunoassay” method. They immobilized synthetic DNA with the same structure as damaged DNA on the bottom of the analysis device as a reference material, and then added both the actual DNA sample extracted from cells and a specific antibody.

The greater the amount of damaged DNA fragments in the sample, the more antibodies bind to the actual DNA fragments, and conversely, fewer remain bound to the reference material. The research team used this inverse relationship to quantify the amount of damaged DNA in the sample in mole units, and then converted this value to the actual number of DNA fragments.

According to the researchers, this technology has achieved up to 22 times higher detection sensitivity than previous analytical methods. Whereas conventional techniques could only comparatively assess the degree of DNA repair, this new technology is characterized by its ability to precisely measure even the number of damaged DNA fragments within cells.

DNA Damage Fragment Ultra-High Sensitivity Analysis Platform Development Research Team. Front row, clockwise from the left: Hajung Kwon, Principal Researcher at KRISS; Geunhoe Kim, Student Researcher at UST; Youngmin Kim, Student Researcher at UST; Junhyuk Choi, Principal Researcher at KRISS. Provided by KRISS

This provides a foundation for more objectively analyzing differences in individual DNA repair capacity and cancer cell responses to anticancer drugs.

Junhyuk Choi, Principal Researcher at KRISS, stated, “By quantifying the speed and efficiency of DNA repair, we can diagnose individual cancer risk at an early stage and objectively assess cancer cell resistance to anticancer drugs. In the future, through further validation using actual human tissues, this technology could be broadly applied to personalized cancer treatments.”

This research was jointly conducted by the KRISS Biomaterial Measurement Group, Organic Measurement Group, and a team from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine (USA). The results were published in March in the international life sciences journal Nucleic Acids Research.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.