Detecting and Quantifying Oxidative DNA Damage using MinION Nanopore Sequencing

A common biomarker of damaged DNA, particularly mitochondrial DNA, 8-oxoguanine (8-oxoG) has been identified as a possible contributor to neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, preeclampsia, as well as type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Numerous methods have been developed to detect oxidative damage within the genome, including but not limited to immunological techniques, quantitative-polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), and in situ imaging. This study explores nanopore sequencing using the MinION Nanopore (Oxford Nanopore Technologies, Oxford, UK) as a more sensitive method of 8-oxoguanine detection, providing proof-of-concept for model training as well as preliminary model development.