Study of the Ability of Lutein and Neoxanthin as Standards and in the Extract of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii to Prevent Oxidatively Induced DNA Base Damage Using Ultrasensitive GC–MS/MS Analysis

In this study, two carotenoid antioxidants lutein and neoxanthin were investigated for their ability to prevent oxidatively induced DNA damage. A Chlamydomonas reinhardtii alga was used as the natural source of lutein and neoxanthin. Analysis using HPLC with Diode Array Detector (DAD) showed that lutein and neoxanthin were the most abundant carotenoids in the extract of C. reinhardtii. An analysis using GC–MS/MS was performed to measure the damage induced by Fenton reaction to DNA and to evaluate the ability of lutein, neoxanthin and C. reinhardtii extract to inhibit such damage. The results showed that lutein and neoxanthin have the ability to reduce oxidatively induced DNA base damage to less than half of its magnitude. Extract of C. reinhardtii inhibited about 76% of the damage in comparison to control sample. Neoxanthin in lower concentrations than those of lutein proved to be better inhibitor of oxidatively induced DNA damage.