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Contents 1 Cancer treatment 2 Psoralen is also an "Intercalating Agent". 3 Questions 4 NPOV

[edit] Cancer treatment

'Tis also used in treating leukemia and T-cell cancers. UV is also the main component in so-called Rife therapy...usually 3 different wavelengths at once.--sascha r.

Do you have any books or refs on that? I'm a chemist, so I know little about that stuff. Thanks, Walkerma 06:16, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Psoralen is also an "Intercalating Agent".

There is no mention of the possible negative side effects Psoralen has.

Psoralen intercalates into the DNA and, on exposure to ultraviolet (UVA) radiation, can form covalent ICLs with thymines preferentially at 5'-TpA sites in the genome, inducing apoptosis. Psoralen plus UVA (PUVA) therapy has shown considerable clinical efficacy¹. Unfortunately, a side effect of PUVA treatment is a higher risk of skin cancer².

1. Qi Wu, Laura A Christensen, Randy J Legerski & Karen M Vasquez (2005) Mismatch repair participates in error-free processing of DNA interstrand crosslinks in human cells. Full Article

2. Momtaz K, Fitzpatrick TB (1998) The benefits and risks of long-term PUVA photochemotherapy. Dermatol Clin 16: 227−234 PubMed —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 85.250.37.217 (talk) 11:09, 12 March 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Questions

• Is it found in celery or celery seed?

• Can it also make the eyes more sensitive to bright sunlight?

Badagnani (talk) 21:48, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

• "high UV absorbance of psoralen" so what does this do -> what is the chemical reaction that occurs when UV energy interacts with the chemical structure of psoralen? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.245.248.160 (talk) 09:29, 25 July 2009 (UTC)

I believe it just jumps to an excited state, via a molecular electronic transition. Not 100% certain on that, though! Walkerma (talk) 21:14, 25 July 2009 (UTC)

[edit] NPOV

The article lead currently states "safe to mammals", but this is untrue. In mammals the molecule is a powerful carcinogen (the article says so) and teratogen (by virtue of its mechanism, breaking DNA). --Una Smith (talk) 03:28, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

This isn't an NPOV issue, it's an outdated reference problem! I added the sentence about safe to mammals, from the Dean reference, which talked about the difference in toxicity to fish vs mammals. However, there are presumably some Indonesian fishermen getting cancer late in life, which Dean might not have known about! With hindsight I should have been more careful - but I always like it when I can find an everyday application of a compound like this, particularly one as interesting as this. If you can reword the information to account for what is NOW known, I'd appreciate it. Thanks! Walkerma (talk) 13:17, 15 July 2009 (UTC)