N-Hydroxy arylamines

N-Hydroxy arylamines are also converted to N-acetoxy arylamines (V), but apparently by an acetyl coenzyme A-dependent enzymatic O-esterification (7, 8). Similarly, N-sulfonyloxy arylamines (VI) are thought to arise by a PAPS-dependent enzymatic O-sulfonylation of N-hydroxy arylamines (9,10) while 0-seryl or 0-prolyl esters (VII) are formed by their corresponding aminoacyl tRNA synthetases in a ATP-dependent reaction (11,12). 

N-Hydroxy arylamines readily form glucuronide conjugates, but in contrast to the N-hydroxy arylamides, these are N-glucuronides which are unreactive and stable at neutral pH. The N-glucuronides are readily transported to the lumens of the urinary bladder and intestine where they can be hydrolyzed to the free N-hydroxy arylamines by mildly acidic urine or by intestinal bacterial 3-glucuronidases (13,14). Non-enzymatic activation of N-hydroxy arylamines can occur in an acidic environment by protonation (15,16) of the N-hydroxy group (VIII) as well as by air oxidation (reviewed in 17) to a nitrosoarene (IX). 

Only a limited number of activation pathways appear to be available to N-methyl arylamines. Following enzymatic N-hydroxyla-tion to secondary N-hydroxy arylamines (21,22), these compounds are converted into reactive electrophiles through enzymatic esterification (9) to N-sulfonyloxy-N-methyl arylamines (XII) or by further oxidation to N-arylnitrones (XIII). 

For certain carcinogenic primary N-hydroxy arylamines, metabolic... 

The formation of 0-seryl or 0-prolyl esters (Figure 1) of certain N-hydroxy arylamines has been inferred from the observations that highly reactive intermediates can be generated in vitro by incubation with ATP, serine or proline, and the corresponding aminoacyl tRNA synthetases (11,12,119). For example, activation of N-hydroxy-4-aminoquinoline-l-oxide (119,120), N-hydroxy-4-aminoazobenzene (11) and N-hydroxy-Trp-P-2 (121) to nucleic acid-bound products was demonstrated using seryl-tRNA synthetase from yeast or rat ascites hepatoma cells. More recently, hepatic cytosolic prolyl-, but not seryl-, tRNA synthetase was shown to activate N-hydroxy-Trp-P-2 (12) however, no activation was detectable for the N-hydroxy metabolites of AF, 3,2 -dimethyl-4-aminobiphenyl, or N -acetylbenzidine (122). 

In contrast to the reactivity of N-sulfonyloxy and N-acetoxy esters of arylamides and arylamines, the relative reactivity of protonated N-hydroxy arylamines with nucleophiles generally decreases in the order DNA > denatured DNA > rRNA = protein > tRNA nucleotides s nucleosides s methionine = GSH (2,13-17,30,36,40,127,129, 130). Furthermore, the rate of reaction with DNA was found to be not only first order with respect to N-hydroxy arylamine concentration, but also first order with respect to DNA concentration (127,129,131). These data suggested that the reaction mechanism was... 

The exceptional reactivity of DNA for protonated N-hydroxy arylamines can be rationalized by at least two mechanisms. First, intercalation of the electrophilic intermediate between DNA bases could sterically assist in desolvation and in directing the electrophilic center of the carcinogen over the nucleophilic region of the DNA base. This seems unlikely, however, as pretreatment of DNA with cis-Pt, which decreased the DNA contour length by 50%, failed to reduce the reactivity of N-hydroxy-1-naphthylamine for the DNA (137). A second possibility involves an electrostatic attraction between the electrophile and the phosphate backbone of the DNA (77). This seems more probable since eithe j +high ionic strength or stoichiometric (to DNA-P) amounts of Mg strongly inhibit DNA adduct formation (77,137). In addition, evidence has been presented that N-hydroxy arylamine-DNA/RNA phosphotriesters may be formed which induce strand breaks (137,138) and could serve as a catalyst for desolvation and subsequent adduct formation. 

The importance of protonated N-hydroxy arylamines as ultimate carcinogens has been suggested for some time (28,40,139). From studies on their reactivity with nucleic acids at different pH s (2,15,16,63,130,131), the pK for protonation of the N-hydroxy group appears to be between pH 5a and 6 thus, a significant proportion (1-10%) of the N-hydroxy derivative exists as the protonated form even under neutral conditions. This would account for the significant levels of covalent modification of DNA observed in vitro by reaction with N-hydroxy arylamines at neutral pH. Consequently, it has been proposed that in vivo formation of non-acetylated aryl... 

Protonated N-hydroxy arylamines have also been proposed to be ultimate carcinogens for the urinary bladder (16,17,140,141) since urine pH is slightly acidic in a number of species (14,142). Furthermore, pharmacokinetic studies have shown that increased urine acidity and decreased frequency of urination are predictive of relative species susceptibility to urinary bladder carcinogenesis (142) and neoplastic transformation of cultured human fibroblasts by N-hydroxy arylamines is greatly enhanced by incubation at pH 5 as compared to pH 7 (143). 

Nitrosoarenes are readily formed by the oxidation of primary N-hydroxy arylamines and several mechanisms appear to be involved. These include 1) the metal-catalyzed oxidation/reduction to nitrosoarenes, azoxyarenes and arylamines (144) 2) the 02-dependent, metal-catalyzed oxidation to nitrosoarenes (145) 3) the 02-dependent, hemoglobin-mediated co-oxidation to nitrosoarenes and methe-moglobin (146) and 4) the 0 2-dependent conversion of N-hydroxy arylamines to nitrosoarenes, nitrosophenols and nitroarenes (147,148). Each of these processes can involve intermediate nitroxide radicals, superoxide anion radicals, hydrogen peroxide and hydroxyl radicals, all of which have been observed in model systems (149,151). Although these radicals are electrophilic and have been suggested to result in DNA damage (151,152), a causal relationship has not yet been established. Nitrosoarenes, on the other hand, are readily formed in in vitro metabolic incubations (2,153) and have been shown to react covalently with lipids (154), proteins (28,155) and GSH (17,156-159). Nitrosoarenes are also readily reduced to N-hydroxy arylamines by ascorbic acid (17,160) and by reduced pyridine nucleotides (9,161). 

Figure 6. Reaction Mechanism and Formation of Protonated N-Hydroxy Arylamines (VIII). RNH2, N2-guanine- and N8-adenine-nucleic acids ROH, 06-guanine-nucleic acids RCH, C8-guanine- and C8-adenine-nucleic acids.

N-AryInitrones (XIII) formed by oxidation of N-hydroxy-N-methyl arylamines, show high reactivity toward carbon-carbon and carbon-nitrogen double bonds in non-aqueous media (21,203) (Figure 10). Under physiological conditions, however, it appears that N-arylnitrones exist as protonated salts that readily hydrolyze to formaldehyde and a primary N-hydroxy arylamine and efforts to detect N-arylnitrone addition products in cellular lipid, protein or nucleic acids have not been successful (204). Nitroxide radicals derived from N-hydroxy-MAB have also been suggested as reactive intermediates (150), but their direct covalent reaction with nucleic acids has been excluded (21). 

Although 1-aminopyrene is a reduced metabolite of 1-nitropyrene, this arylamine will not covalently bind to DNA in vitro (72). In contrast, when incubations were conducted with the intermediate reduction product, N-hydroxy-l-aminopyrene, extensive covalent binding to DNA was detected (72). This observation is consistent with the previous report that several N-hydroxy arylamines formed DNA adducts and induced mutations in S. typhimurium (116), and suggests that, at least for 1-nitropyrene, reduction to N-hydroxy-l-aminopyrene is a critical step in mutation induction. 

Certain nitro PAHs appear to require metabolism of their N-hydroxy arylamine derivatives in order to induce mutations. For example, while 2-nitrofluorene showed decreased mutagenicity in the nitroreductase-deficient mutant, TA98NR, and in strain TA98/1,8-DNP, its presumed ultimate mutagenic derivative, N-hydroxy-2-aminofluorene was inactive in only strain TA98/1,8-DNP (117). Observations such as these led McCoy t al. (117) to... 

Minchin, R. F., K. F. Ilett, C. H. Teitel, P. T. Reeves and F. F. Kadlubar. 1992. Direct 0-acetylation of N-hydroxy arylamines by acetylsalicylic acid to form carcinogen-DNA adducts. Carcinogenesis 13 663-667. 

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