Prevention of dna damage and evaluation of dna repair induction by aqueous extract of Nigella sativa

Genome is under attack of multiple factors which lead to DNA damage. Organisms have DNA repair mechanisms to protect their genetic material from damages caused by multiple factors. There is a balance between DNA damage and DNA repair. If this balance failed and DNA damage increase, it can be resulted in genetic instability, apoptosis and many of cancer types. In this work evaluated the effect of aqueous black cumin extract and Thymoquinone (TQ) of the active ingredient which is one of CO for its protecting and DNA damage induction against oxidative damage to DNA in haploid Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain. S. cerevisiae cells to H2O2 induced DNA damage in cell culture and against the COE `TQ` s the protective effects of induction and repair of alkaline single cell gel electrophoresis (comet assay) was used. Pre-treatments with CO aqueous extract reduced DNA damage at the dilutions 1\10, 1\20, 1\40 and 1\80. Thus, CO aqueous extract showed cellular protection against DNA damage produced by H2O2. However, repairing mechanism was not good enough. In addition, 100 µg/ml and 50 µg/ml concentrations of TQ 'had both repairing and protective effect on DNA damage induced by H2O2.