Somayeh Vandghanooni
1, Morteza Eskandani
1*1 Research Center for Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology, Student Research Committee, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
Abstract
Introduction: Drug
delivery systems could induce cellular toxicity as side effect of
nanomaterials. The mechanism of toxicity usually involves DNA damage.
The comet assay or single cell gel electrophoresis (SCGE) is a sensitive
method for detecting strand damages in the DNA of a cell with
applications in genotoxicity testing and molecular epidemiology as well
as fundamental research in DNA damage and repair. Methods: In the current study, we reviewed recent drug delivery researches related to SCGE. Results:
We found that one preference for choosing the assay is that comet
images may result from apoptosis-mediated nuclear fragmentation. This
method has been widely used over the last decade in several different
areas. Overall cells, such as cultured cells are embedded in agarose on a
microscope slide, lysed with detergent, and treated with high salt.
Nucleoids are supercoiled DNA form. When the slide is faced to alkaline
electrophoresis any breakages present in the DNA cause the supercoiling
to relax locally and loops of DNA extend toward the anode as a ‘‘comet
tail’’. Conclusion: This article provides a
relatively comprehensive review upon potentiality of the comet assay for
assessment of DNA damage and accordingly it can be used as an
informative platform in genotoxicity studies of drug delivery systems.