Abstract
Malignancies are caused by genetic or environmental factors. Esophageal carcinoma can be triggered by consumption of hot food and beverages. Here we propose that high temperature is one of the culprits and it leads to DNA denaturation. Subsequently the exposed hydrogen bonding acceptors in single stranded DNA attract protons which enhance the formation of mutagenic and carcinogenic strong acids such as HCl. Faster mutation of single-stranded DNA viruses than that of double-stranded DNA viruses lends support to this theory.
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Acknowledgements
Discussions with Weiguo Cao are appreciated. We thank Yan Shi for language editing.
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This work was supported by grants from the Science and Technology Transformation Program of Sun Yat-sen University of China (33000-18843234) and Guangzhou Science and Technology Program (201804010328) to QL.
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QL conceived and supervised the study, analyzed the data and wrote the first draft. YL conducted the literature search and analyzed the data, and co-wrote first draft. XZ, JZ and YW conducted the literature search and analyzed the data, and wrote and revised the second draft. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Lin, Y., Zhang, X., Wang, Y. et al. Single-stranded DNA generated by high temperature accepts protons and builds up mutagenic and carcinogenic strong acids. Mol Biol Rep 48, 7633–7635 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-021-06804-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-021-06804-0