production of proteins. mRNA affected by oxidative lesions is still recognized by ribosome, but the ribosome will undergo stalling and dysfunction. This results in proteins having either decreased expression or truncation, leading to aggregation and general dysfunction. Structural rearrangements Depurination is caused by hydrolysis and results in loss if the purine base of a nucleic acid. DNA is more prone to this, as the transition state in the depurination reaction has much greater energy in RNA. Tautomerization is a chemical reaction that is primarily relevant in the behavior of amino acids and nucleic acids. Both of which are correlated to DNA and RNA. The process of tautomerization of DNA bases occurs during DNA replication. The ability for the wrong tautomer of one of the standard nucleic bases to mispair causes a mutation during the process of DNA replication which can be cytotoxic or mutagenic to the cell. These mispairings can result in transition, transversion, frameshift, deletion, and/or duplication mutations. Some diseases that result from tautomerization induced DNA lesions include Kearns-Sayre syndrome, Fragile X syndrome, Kennedy disease, and Huntington’s disease. Cytosine deamination commonly occurs under physiological conditions and essentially is the deamination of cytosine. This process yields uracil as its product, which is not a base pair found within DNA. This process causes extensive DNA damage. The rate of this process is slowed down significantly in double-stranded DNA compared to single-stranded DNA. Single and Double Stranded Breaks Single-strand breaks (SSBs) occur when one strand of the DNA double helix experiences breakage of a single nucleotide accompanied by damaged 5’- and/or 3’-termini at this point. One common source of SSBs is due to oxidative attack by physiological reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as hydrogen peroxide. H2O2 causes SSBs three times more frequently than double-strand breaks (DSBs). Alternative methods of SSB acquisition include direct disintegration of the oxidized sugar or through DNA base-excision repair (BER) of damaged bases. Additionally, cellular enzymes may perform erroneous activity leading to SSBs or DSBs by a variety of mechanisms. One such example would be when the cleavage complex formed by DNA topoisomerase 1 (TOP1) relaxes DNA during transcription and replication through the transient formation of a nick. While TOP1 normally reseals this nick shortly after, these cleavage complexes may collide with RNA or DNA polymerases or be proximal to other lesions, leading to TOP1-linked SSBs or TOP1-linked DSBs. Chemical Adducts A DNA adduct is a segment of