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The Sunscreen Octyl Methoxycinnamate Binds to DNA
Authors: Norrell, Johannes; Vohra, Shikhar; Nordlund,
T. M.
Affiliation: Dept. of Physics, Univ. of Alabama at
Birmingham
Journal: American Physical Society, Annual March
Meeting, March 20-24, 2000 Minneapolis, MN, abstract
#F36.093
Publication Date: 03/2000
Origin: APS
Bibliographic Code: 2000APS..MARF36093N
Abstract
Sunscreens are designed to prevent skin cancer by
absorbing ultraviolet radiation from the sun before it
gets to the DNA in skin cells. The purpose of this work
is to determine whether or not octyl methoxycinnamate,
an active ingredient in many sunscreens, will bind to
DNA. If so, the sunscreen could transfer the energy it
absorbed from the sun to the DNA and cause damage. To
determine this, we prepared samples with varying
concentrations of cinnamate added to herring sperm DNA,
sonicating the mixture to disperse the hydrophobic
sunscreen into solution. Absorption and fluorescence
spectra of the mixtures showed (i) much more sunscreen
was dispersed into solution when DNA was present, and
(ii) the spectra of both DNA and sunscreen differed from
those of the separate solutions. We conclude that the
octyl methoxycinnamate can indeed bind to DNA in aqueous
solution. Energy transfer experiments from DNA to
sunscreen and from sunscreen to 2-aminopurine- (a
fluorescent DNA base) labeled DNA will be presented
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