Ambident electrophiles radicals

As a point of reference, relative rates for methyl methacrylate have also been included in Table 6. While addition to butadiene or isoprene is significantly faster as compared to methyl methacrylate for electrophilic or ambident radicals, little rate variation is found for the 1-phenylethyl radical. 

Phenol-induced oxidative stress mediated by thiol oxidation, antioxidant depletion, and enhanced free radical production plays a key role in the deleterious activities of certain phenols. In this mode of DNA damage, the phenol does not interact with DNA directly and the observed genotoxicity is caused by an indirect mechanism of action induced by ROS. A direct mode of phenol-induced genotoxicity involves covalent DNA adduction derived from electrophilic species of phenols produced by metabolic activation. Oxidative metabolism of phenols can generate quinone intermediates that react covalently with N-1,N of dG to form benzetheno-type adducts. Our laboratory has also recently shown that phenoxyl radicals can participate in direct radical addition reactions with C-8 of dG to form oxygen (O)-adducts. Because the metabolism of phenols can also generate C-adducts at C-8 of dG, a case can be made that phenoxyl radicals display ambident (O vs. C) electrophilicity in DNA adduction. 

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