Kinetic Modeling Reveals the Roles of Reactive Oxygen Species Scavenging and DNA Repair Processes in Shaping the Dose-Response Curve of KBrO(3)-Induced DNA Damage

We have developed a kinetic model to investigate how DNA repair processes and scavengers of reactive oxygen species (ROS) can affect the dose-response shape of prooxidant induced DNA damage. We used as an example chemical KBrO(3) which is activated by glutathione and forms reactive intermediates that directly interact with DNA to form 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine DNA adducts (8-OH-dG). The single strand breaks (SSB) that can result from failed base excision repair of these adducts were considered as an effect downstream from 8-OH-dG. We previously demonstrated that, in the presence of effective base excision repair, 8-OH-dG can exhibit threshold-like dose-response dependence, while the downstream SSB can still exhibit a linear dose-response. Here we demonstrate that this result holds for a variety of conditions, including low levels of GSH, the presence of additional SSB repair mechanisms, or a scavenger. It has been shown that melatonin, a terminal scavenger, inhibits KBrO(3)-caused oxidative damage. Our modeling revealed that sustained exposure to KBrO(3) can lead to fast scavenger exhaustion, in which case the dose-response shapes for both endpoints are not substantially affected. The results are important to consider when forming conclusions on a chemical's toxicity dose dependence based on the dose-response of early genotoxic events.