Oxidative damage of DNA, especially damage induced by singlet oxygen, correlates with a host of disease processes. Due to the link between oxidative DNA damage and disease, a great deal of effort has been put forth to develop methods to detect and quantify DNA damage based on the presence of oxidation-specific biomarkers. Two oxidation products, 8-oxoguanine and 8-oxoadenosine have become important biomarkers of oxidative damage. This study describes a two solution-based methods for monitoring the binding of a fluorescein-labelled avidin to photodamaged lambda phage DNA.

Cocculus cordifolius, a climbing shrub found in tropical Western India, Burma and Ceylon, whose parts are known to be used as traditional herbal medicine to treat various aliments such as cold fevers, seminal weakness and urinary affections, stomach and splenic affections, and chronic gonorrhea. The solvent fractions of the whole plant of C. cordifolius were extracted with hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate and methanol to determine their antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activities.