A sound reason for vampires to be weak to sunlight?

So, vampires here are created from humans with the help of a stone mask. Now, they're supposed to be weak for two things:

1. Having their brains destroyed
2. Prolonged exposure to sunlight

The first is obvious, for the second I came up with the following excuse, presented by Kyubey Mephisto:

"W-what happens if I walk outside during daytime?" She was clearly starting to lose it.

"It would be extremely painful for you. However, you wouldn't die right away. A vampire can spend hours in sunlight, but the longer you stay there, the more severe the repercussions become. The harmful effects of UV-exposure can stay for days and accumulate over time," said Mephisto.

"Why? W-"

"Shall I tell you?" Though Mephisto knew the girl was concerned about something else, he deiced to ignore it. Vampirification wasn't something he could or would do anything about. "What you're about to hear will fundamentally change your views of evolution and the place of mankind in it.

"As a vampire, you have become biologically immortal, meaning you can't die to old age. The same is true for your cells.

"You see, ordinary cells have so-called telomere regions in their chromosomes that degrade each time the DNA is copied. Once a limit is reached, the cell becomes incapable of mitosis and dies.

"This is not the case for vampire cells, which have ways of replenishing their telomere regions. However, this also means genetically damaged cells will be able to reproduce as well. Your body has facilities for repairing its own DNA, but sufficient damage could still overwhelm this ability, resulting in a slow death.

"When you expose yourself to UV light, it creates free radicals in your cells, putting oxidative stress on them, which means, you guessed it, damaged DNA."

So, this was my idea of explaining the weakness of vampires to sunlight, but it still sounds, weak. I mean, it is correct, but it doesn't sound severe enough.

What could make oxidative damage from sunlight even more severe to vampires?

posted over 4 years ago

Mephistopheles‭

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