title: A paradoxical relationship between Resveratrol and copper (II) with respect to degradation of DNA and RNA.
abstract: Resveratrol (R), a plant polyphenol, is known to reduce Cu (II) to Cu (I) generating reactive oxygen species that can cleave plasmid DNA. Here we report a surprising observation of a paradoxical relationship between R and Cu whereby plasmid DNA cleaving / degrading activity of R-Cu increased progressively as the ratio of R to Cu was increased i.e., the concentration of Cu was successively reduced with respect to a fixed concentration R. Whereas cleavage of plasmid DNA occurred at low molar ratios of R to Cu, at higher ratios, complete degradation of DNA was achieved. By further increasing the ratio, whereby the concentration of Cu was reduced to very low levels, the DNA degrading activity of R-Cu was lost. This paradoxical relationship is also seen with respect to eukaryotic genomic DNA and RNA. Since R-Cu may have anti-cancer and anti-viral activities, our findings may not only help to improve the therapeutic efficacy of R-Cu but also reduce its toxic side effects with the use of low concentration of Cu.
authors.affiliation: Translational Research Laboratory, Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer, Tata Memorial Centre, Kharghar, Navi-Mumbai, 410210, India.
authors.forename: Siddharth
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Subramaniam
authors.affiliation: Translational Research Laboratory, Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer, Tata Memorial Centre, Kharghar, Navi-Mumbai, 410210, India.
authors.forename: Iqbal
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Vohra
authors.affiliation: Translational Research Laboratory, Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer, Tata Memorial Centre, Kharghar, Navi-Mumbai, 410210, India.
authors.forename: Aishwarya
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Iyer
authors.affiliation: Translational Research Laboratory, Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer, Tata Memorial Centre, Kharghar, Navi-Mumbai, 410210, India.
authors.forename: Naveen K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Nair
authors.affiliation: Translational Research Laboratory, Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer, Tata Memorial Centre, Kharghar, Navi-Mumbai, 410210, India.
authors.forename: Indraneel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mittra
keywords: RNA degradation; Resveratrol; copper; eukaryotic DNA degradation; plasmid DNA cleavage; plasmid DNA degradation; pro-oxidant activity