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How does superoxide damage cells?
Posted April 2, 2020

Answer

Superoxide (O2-) itself has poor reactivity, but damages cells by promoting hydroxyl radical (.OH) formation, which in turn damages DNA in cells. The way this happens is that superoxide interacts with iron-sulfur clusters to obtain free iron to be used in the Haber-Weiss reaction, which generates hydroxyl radials from superoxide and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2).