Single-Molecule Force Spectroscopy of Deoxyribonucleic Acid and Deoxyribonucleic Acid Polymerase Activity Impacted by Alkylating Agents

DNA alkylating agents are widely used in anticancer pharmacology. Although shown to induce cross-linking and/or methylation of DNA, how they affect the mechanical properties of DNA and activity of DNA enzymes remains to be elucidated. Here, we perform single-molecule optical tweezer experiments on DNA treated with alkylating agents, including melphalan, cisplatin, and dacarbazine. While all three drugs induce a significant increase of overstretching force and a reduction of hysteresis, suggesting stabilization of DNA against shearing forces, their effects on elasticity of DNA were quite different, with the largest change in persistence length induced by cisplatin. Furthermore, we find that these alkylating-agent-induced changes on DNA have different effects on processivity of DNA polymerase, with melphalan and cisplatin showing significantly reduced activity and dacarbazine showing little effect. Overall, our results provide new insights into the effects for these alkylating agents, which could potentially facilitate a better design of related drugs.