Alkylation, of DNA

Ficellomycin was found to inhibit semiconservative DNA replication in Eschir-ichia coli, and this was found not to be due to direct inhibition of DNA polymerase [166]. It has been suggested that ficellomycin may exert its biological activity by alkylation of DNA [165], in common with the azinomyins. The biosynthesis of ficellomycin has not been studied, but it seems highly probable that its 1-azabicy-clo[3.1.0]hexane ring system will arise from a pathway related to that for the azinomycins. 

The tightly bound chromophore could be extracted from the protein with methanol [186], and the major component of the extract was determined to have the enediyne structure 116 (Figure 11.21), related to chromophores of other chromoprotein antitumor agents such as neocarzinostatin. Additional minor components were extracted, variously containing an OH group instead of OMe attached to the enediyne core, with Cl instead of OMe when chloride was present in the buffer salt, or with OEt instead of OMe when ethanol was used for the extraction. Another byproduct was isolated in the form of structure 117, consistent with a facile cy-doaromatization reaction as observed for all other enediyne antibiotics. Surprisingly, 117 also displayed antibiotic and antitumor activity, perhaps due to alkylation of DNA or protein by the aziridine. The interpretation of these results was that 116 and the other enediyne byproducts were merely artifacts of the extraction procedure and that the true structure of the maduropeptin chromophore is the aziridine 118. 

WuRTZ, N.R. and P.B. Dervan. Sequence-specific alkylation of DNA by hairpin pyrrole-imidazole polyamide conjugates. Chem. Biol. 2000, 7, 153-161. 

Tomasz, M. Palom, Y. The mitomycin bioreductive antitumor agents cross-linking and alkylation of DNA as the molecular basis of their activity. Pharmacol. Ther. 1997, 76, 73-87. 

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