Anthracene-induced DNA damage and oxidative stress: a combined study at molecular and cellular levels

At present, research progress of anthracene’s toxicity lags far behind the pollution caused on its application fields such as petroleum and minerals. In this paper, anthracene-induced oxidative stress effects and genetic toxicity were investigated at both the molecular and cellular levels. The intracellular oxidative stress effect of anthracene on earthworm primary coelomocyte was confirmed by the detection of reactive oxygen species, antioxidant enzymes activity, and malondialdehyde content. Moreover, after anthracene exposure, the decrease in the mitochondrial membrane potential and cell viability also indicated the adverse effects of anthracene on earthworm coelomocyte. The comet assay proved the break in DNA strand, revealing the anthracene-induced DNA damage. On the molecular level, we revealed that anthracene caused the shrinkage of the catalase skeleton and altered the microenvironment of chromophores of catalase by multi-spectral methods. Molecular simulation results indicated that anthracene interacted with His74 by “arene-arene” force and the dominant binding site between anthracene and catalase was close to the active site of catalase. In addition, anthracene was shown to bind to the DNA molecule by groove binding mode. This study proposed a new combined analysis method for the toxicity evaluation of anthracene at the cellular and molecular levels. Graphical abstract This study creatively proposed a new combined analysis for the toxicity evaluation of ANT at the cellular and molecular levels.