Dynamic behavior of secondary electrons in liquid water at the earliest stage upon irradiation; Implications for DNA damage localization mechanism

Kai, Takeshi   ; Yokoya, Akinari*; Ukai, Masatoshi*; Fujii, Kentaro*; Watanabe, Ritsuko*

Low energy secondary electrons produced by an ionizing radiation in a living cell may involve in formation of complexed DNA damage. We performed theoretical study for numerical calculation of dynamic behavior of the electrons to imply a formation of radiation damage to DNA. The decelerating electrons are gradually attracted to their parent cations by the Coulombic force within hundreds of fs, and about 12.6 % of electrons are finally distributed within 2 nm from the cations. The collision fraction of the ionization and excitation within 1 nm from the cation was estimated to be about 40 %. From those analyses, we suggested a process of DNA damage that the secondary electrons may cause highly localized lesions around a cation in DNA molecule through additional dissociative electron transfer as well as the ionization or the excitation if the electrons are ejected from DNA. The localized damage may involve ultimately in biological effects such as cell death or mutation induction.