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Qβ Bacteriophage Photoinactivated by Methylene Blue Plus Light Involves Inactivation of Its Genomic RNA
Author(s) -
Schneider J. Edward,
Pye Quentin,
Floyd Robert A.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
photochemistry and photobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.818
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1751-1097
pISSN - 0031-8655
DOI - 10.1111/j.1751-1097.1999.tb08300.x
Subject(s) - rna , bacteriophage , methylene blue , chemistry , microbiology and biotechnology , dna , nucleic acid , in vitro , biochemistry , biology , escherichia coli , gene , photocatalysis , catalysis
Abstract Methylene blue (MB) is being used as a sensitizer for the photodynamic inactivation of viral contaminants, including the human immunodeficiency virus, in blood and blood components used in medical treatment. We recently showed that oxygen‐dependent photodynamic inactivation of the RNA bacteriophage QP with MB plus light (MB+L) is associated with the formation of 8‐oxo‐7,8‐dihydroguanine, protein carbonyls, RNA‐protein crosslinkages and minor amounts of RNA strand breaks. We report herein, with the use of infectious RNA assays, that the lethal lesions in Qβ phage following MB+L exposure can be accounted for, and thereby most likely reside in, the RNA component of the phage but that the protein component of the virion contributes to the inactivation. The formation of RNA‐protein crosslinkages as the primary inactivating type of lesion is put forth as the most probable model of the inactivation mechanism due to the sensitivity with which RNA‐protein crosslinks are formed in response to MB+L exposure and the expectation of the powerful inactivating power of this type of lesion.