Charles E Boone

US Patent:

60177063, Jan 25, 2000

Filed:

May 7, 1997

Appl. No.:

8/852355

Inventors:

Ram Parshad - Olney MD
Jay H. Robbins - Potomac MD
Charles W. Boone - Bethesda MD

Assignee:

The United States of America as represented by the Department of Health
and Human Services - Washington DC

International Classification:

C12Q 168

US Classification:

435 6

Abstract:

Processes for detecting compounds which protect against fluorescent light-induced DNA lesions, in particular DNA lesions which are induced by oxygen free radicals, are disclosed. The methods of the present invention encompass modifying G. sub. 1 -phase test and/or G. sub. 2 -phase tests so that a compound which is suspected of being capable of protecting against the formation of fluorescent light-induced DNA lesions (i. e. , a suspected "DNA protectant"), such as an anti-oxidant or free-radical scavenger, is added to the cell cultures prior to irradiation of the cell cultures with fluorescent light or x-rays. Addition of a DNA protectant to cultures of human skin fibroblasts or PHA-stimulated blood lymphocytes significantly reduces the frequency of radiation-induced chromatid breaks so that there is a small, preferably no, statistical difference in the frequency of radiation-induced chromatid breaks in Alzheimer disease cells in the presence or absence of caffeine in the G. sub. 1 -phase test using fluorescent light, or in normal cells in the presence or absence of ara-C in the G. sub. 2 -phase test using fluorescent light or x-rays.