Keggin anions behave differently from each other when they react with nucleic acids. The molybdenum series exhibits oxidative cleavage activity towards AMP and DNA. The mechanism of AMP damage and DNA cleavage caused by the molybdenum series is mainly oxidation and the oxidation sites are on the ribose parts other than on the adenine parts, while the hydrolysis probably makes significant contributions to the cleavage of DNA and to the damage of AMP caused by the tungsten series.