Theoretical studies of damage to 3′-uridine monophosphate induced by electron attachment

Low-energy electrons (LEE) are well known to induce nucleic acid damage. However, the damage mechanisms related to charge state and structural features remain to be explored in detail. In the present work, we have investigated the N1-glycosidic and C3′-O(P) bond ruptures of 3′-UMP (UMP = uridine monophosphate) and the protonated form 3′-UMPH with - 1 and zero charge, respectively, based on hybrid density functional theory (DFT) B3LYP together with the 6-31 + G(d,p) basis set. The glycosidic bond breakage reactions of the 3′UMP and 3′UMPH electron adducts are exothermic in both cases, with barrier heights of 19-20 kcal mol^-1 upon inclusion of bulk solvation. The effects of the charge state on the phosphate group are marginal, but the C2′-OH group destabilizes the transition structure of glycosidic bond rupture of 3′-UMPH in the gas phase by approximately 5.0 kcal mol^-1. This is in contrast with the C3′-O(P) bond ruptures induced by LEE in which the charge state on the phosphate influences the barrier heights and reaction energies considerably. The barrier towards C3′-O(P) bond dissociation in the 3′UMP electron adduct is higher in the gas phase than the one corresponding to glycosidic bond rupture and is dramatically influenced by the C2′-OH group and bulk salvation, which decreases the barrier to 14.7 kcal mol^-1. For the C3′-O(P) bond rupture of the 3′UMPH electron adduct, the reaction is exothermic and the barrier is even lower, 8.2 kcal mol^-1, which is in agreement with recent results for 3′-dTMPH and 5′-dTMPH (dTMPH = deoxythymidine monophosphate). Both the Mulliken atomic charges and unpaired-spin distribution play significant roles in the reactions.