Abstract
Ionizing radiation releases a flood of low-energy electrons that often causes the fragmentation of the molecular species it encounters. Special attention has been paid to the electrons’ contribution to DNA damage via the dissociative electron attachment (DEA) process. Although numerous research groups worldwide have probed these processes in the past, and many significant achievements have been made, some technical challenges have hindered researchers from obtaining a complete picture of DEA. Therefore, this research perspective calls urgently for the implementation of advanced techniques to identify non-charged radicals that form from such a decomposition of gas-phase molecules. Having well-described DEA products offers a promise to benefit society by straddling the boundary between physics, chemistry, and biology, and it brings the tools of atomic and molecular physics to bear on relevant issues of radiation research and medicine.
Highlights
Background and Knowledge GapOver the past several decades, significant resources in the atomic and molecular physics community have been directed towards the understanding of collisional processes with biomolecular targets
It is commonly accepted that secondary electrons with a lesser amount of energy than the ionization energy of water (~12.5 eV) are “low-energy electrons (LEEs).”
A continuing quest to understand fundamental phenomena induced by ionizing radiation, LEEs, which are invariable primary products in any irradiated matter, is still the ongoing focus of the radiation research community
Summary
Over the past several decades, significant resources in the atomic and molecular physics community have been directed towards the understanding of collisional processes with biomolecular targets. The excitation can lead to a neutral dissociation process and the attachment to a dissociative electron attachment (DEA) process (Figure 1) Both quantum processes occur at specific energies, which are referred to as resonances; they correspond to the various energy levels of the transient state and can result in the formation of at least one or more radicals if molecular bond breakage occurs [3]. In the experiments with the DNA analogues, the dissociation patterns observed were the ones in which the molecule lost a hydrogen anion, which is the anion that is detected with mass spectrometry The resemblance of both yields, that is, for electroninduced single-strand breaks (SSBs) and double-strand breaks (DSBs) in DNA, and the dissociation of the condensed-phase compounds, prompted the authors to conclude that DNA damage can be initiated by resonant electron attachment to different locations in DNA that is followed by bond dissociation. Researchers have realized that radical detection would provide a complete description of the dissociation processes that must be employed to determine the mechanism of radiation damage in any biological system, including DNA
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