Nanoscale Calculation of Proton-Induced DNA Damage Using a Chromatin Geometry Model with Geant4-DNA

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Kun Zhu¹  Yuchen Liu¹  Xuantao Ji¹  Siyuan Luo¹  Xiaoyu Peng¹  Xiaodong Wang¹  Chun Wu² 

[1] School of Nuclear Science and Technology, University of South China, Hengyang 421001, China;School of Nursing, University of South China, Hengyang 421001, China;

关键词: Monte Carlo simulation;    Geant4-DNA;    DNA damage;    uncertainty analysis;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms23116343

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Monte Carlo simulations can quantify various types of DNA damage to evaluate the biological effects of ionizing radiation at the nanometer scale. This work presents a study simulating the DNA target response after proton irradiation. A chromatin fiber model and new physics constructors with the ELastic Scattering of Electrons and Positrons by neutral Atoms (ELSEPA) model were used to describe the DNA geometry and the physical stage of water radiolysis with the Geant4-DNA toolkit, respectively. Three key parameters (the energy threshold model for strand breaks, the physics model and the maximum distance to distinguish DSB clusters) of scoring DNA damage were studied to investigate the impact on the uncertainties of DNA damage. On the basis of comparison of our results with experimental data and published findings, we were able to accurately predict the yield of various types of DNA damage. Our results indicated that the difference in physics constructor can cause up to 56.4% in the DNA double-strand break (DSB) yields. The DSB yields were quite sensitive to the energy threshold for strand breaks (SB) and the maximum distance to classify the DSB clusters, which were even more than 100 times and four times than the default configurations, respectively.

【 授权许可】

Unknown