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A paradoxical synergistic effect between Resveratrol and copper (II) with respect to degradation of DNA and RNA

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Since our study shows that Cfs are DNA damaging agents with implications for diseases associated with elevated Cfs levels, removal / degradation of Cfs could be of therapeutic value. Resveratrol (R), a plant polyphenol, is known to reduce Cu (II) to Cu (I) generating reactive oxygen species that can cleave plasmid DNA. We have observed that there exists a synergistic effect between R and Cu whereby plasmid DNA cleaving / degrading activity of R-Cu progressively increases as the ratio of R to Cu is increased i.e., the concentration of Cu is successively reduced with respect to a fixed concentration R. Whereas cleavage of DNA occurs at low molar ratios of R to Cu, at higher ratios, complete degradation of DNA is achieved. With further increases in the ratio, wherein the concentration of Cu is reduced to very low levels, the DNA degrading activity of R-Cu is gradually lost. This synergistic effect is also seen with respect to eukaryotic genomic DNA and RNA. This data indicate that R-Cu may have potential in vivoCfs degrading activity and suggest that it might be possible to reduce the concentration of Cu to our advantage so as to obviate any toxic side-effects of Cu.

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