Two distinct but concurrent reactions take place when psoralen-treated skin is exposed to UVA radiation. Psoralens have an absorption peak at 300 nm and an action spectrum peak at 335 nm.46 In an oxygen-independent reaction, UVA excites psoralens to a triplet state that causes covalent binding of the psoralen molecule with nuclear DNA.
and this just gives me horrible horrible nightmares and flashbacks to my 8-hour Organic Chemistry lab in England... God I hated that course with a passion I never knew I had. In fact, just because I hate spectroscopy so much, I'm going to pretend I have no clue what the above paragraph means. |