N-Sulfonyloxy 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). 

The role of N-sulfonyloxy arylamines as ultimate carcinogens appears to be limited. For N-hydroxy-2-naphthylamine, conversion by rat hepatic sulfotransferase to a N-sulfonyloxy metabolite results primarily in decomposition to 2-amino-l-naphthol and 1-sulfonyloxy-2-naphthylamine which are also major urinary metabolites and reaction with added nucleophiles is very low, which suggests an overall detoxification process (9,17). However, for 4-aminoazobenzene and N-hydroxy-AAF, which are potent hepatocarcinogens in the newborn mouse, evidence has been presented that strongly implicates their N-sulfonyloxy arylamine esters as ultimate hepatocarcinogens in this species (10,104). This includes the inhibition of arylamine-DNA adduct formation and tumorigenesis by the sulfotransferase inhibitor pentachlorophenol, the reduced tumor incidence in brachymorphic mice that are deficient in PAPS biosynthesis (10,115), and the relatively low O-acetyltransferase activity of mouse liver for N-hydroxy-4-aminoazobenzene and N-OH-AF (7,114,115). 

The identification of C8-guanyl and N6-adenyl adducts of 4-aminoquinoline-l-oxide (102,103) in DNA modified by the metaboli-cally-generated 0-seryl ester and the similarity of the adduct profile with that obtained on reaction of DNA with N-acetoxy-4-araino-quinoline-l-oxide suggest an electrophilic reaction mechanism similar to that for the N-acetoxy or N-sulfonyloxy arylamines (Figures 4 and 5). However, N-seryloxy or N-prolyloxy arylamines have not been synthesized and the decomposition products of the esters generated in vitro have not yet been studied. 

N-sulfonyloxy arylamines (vide supra) and is supported by mechanistic studies using the analogous N-sulfonyloxy esters of purine N-oxides (201,202). 

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). 

Like the N-acetoxy arylamines, a reaction mechanism for N-sulfonyloxy esters would be expected to involve formation of a nitrenium/carbenium cation-sulfate anion pair which then reacts with... 

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... 

Although several N-methyl-substituted arylamines have been shown to be carcinogenic (184-186), metabolic activation pathways have been investigated primarily for the hepatocarcinogenic aminoazo dyes, N-methyl-4-aminoazobenzene (MAB) and its 3 -methyl derivative (9,21, 22,187,188). N-Hydroxy-N-methyl arylamines are generally regarded as proximate carcinogenic metabolites (22,187,189) and have been shown to be converted to electrophilic N-sulfonyloxy derivatives by hepatic sulfotransferases (9,187) or to reactive N-arylnitrones by air oxidation (21). 

For N-methyl arylamines, electrophilic N-sulfonyloxy esters appear to be strong candidates for the ultimate carcinogenic metabolites. However, additional studies are required as these conclusions are circumstantially based on their comparative reactivity with nucleophiles and on the failure of other metabolic conjugation systems to esterify N-hydroxy-N-methyl arylamines (9,187). 

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