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Melphalan is a bifunctional alkylating agent that covalently binds to the nucleophilic sites present in DNA. In this study we investigated oligonucleotides prepared enzymatically from DNA modified with melphalan. Calf thymus DNA was incubated in-vitro with melphalan and the resulting modifications were enzymatically cleaved by means of benzonase and nuclease S1. Efficient sample preconcentration was achieved by solid-phase extraction, in which phenyl phase cartridges resulted in better recovery of the modified species than C(18). The applied enzymatic digestion time resulted in production of trinucleotide adducts which were efficiently separated and detected by use of reversed-phase HPLC coupled to an ion-trap mass spectrometer with electrospray ionization. It was assumed that melphalan could act as both a monofunctional and bifunctional alkylating agent. Mono-alkylated adducts were much more abundant, however, and the alkylation site was located on the nucleobases. On the other hand, we unequivocally identified cross-link formation in DNA, even though at low abundance and only a few adduct types were detected.

Oxaliplatin is a third-generation platinum complex, and has a broad spectrum of antitumor activity. Such platinum complexes with the DACH carrier ligand have recently received increasing attention since they show efficacy against cisplatin-resistant cell lines. As the foremost indication of antitumor activity of platinum drugs is the formation of adducts with genomic DNA, calf thymus DNA-oxaliplatin adducts were the major target in this study. Calf thymus DNA was incubated with oxaliplatin, resulting in the formation of a large number of platinum-DNA adducts. Treated DNA was digested into the dinucleotides with a combination of enzymes, namely, benzonase, alkaline phosphatase, and nuclease S1. Using a high-performance liquid chromatography, we carried out the separation of individual platinum-DNA adducts which were concurrently identified using electrospray ionization ion trap mass spectrometry (MS). Both 1,2-intrastrand and 1,2-interstrand cross-linked adducts were found; however, those of the intrastrand nature have a considerably higher abundance than those of the interstrand cross-links. Among them, d(GpG)-oxaliplatin was the most abundant bifuctional adduct. To a lesser extent, a few monofunctional adducts were detected as well. MS(n) experiments served to ascertain the detailed structures of oxaliplatin adducts of dinucleoside monophosphates and of dinucleotides.

For the quantification of Melphalan DNA adducts, an analytical approach based on the detection of phosphorus using liquid chromatography combined with inductively-coupled-plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was developed. In reaction mixtures of native 2'-deoxynucleotides-5'-monophosphates and Melphalan, which were separated using reversed phase chromatography, phosphate adducts were found as the most abundant modifications. Besides the phosphate adducts, several base alkylated adducts were observed. In calf thymus DNA incubated with Melphalan and enzymatically digested using Nuclease P1, the phosphate adducts as well as monoalkylated dinucleotides were found. The most abundant single Melphalan adduct observed in DNA was a ring-opened adenosine monophosphate. Some dinucleotide adducts and the adenosine adduct were identified using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS)., (Copyright (c) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

The reaction of styrene oxide, a potential carcinogen in humans, with DNA constituents has been used to develop an improved method for quantification of DNA adducts. To enable monitoring of DNA adducts caused by xenobiotics at physiological relevant levels, a robust, reliable and powerful method based on monitoring of phosphorus in nucleotides is described. An efficient enzymatic digestion step and a sample-preconcentration procedure are essential, and enable separation of alkylated nucleotides from the large excess of native nucleotides. The adducts are detected by means of the phosphorus signal measured at mass m/z = 31 with an inductively-coupled-plasma mass spectrometer. Bis(4-nitrophenyl)phosphate (BNPP) serves as internal standard for quantification of the adducts. The absolute limit of detection, 45 fmol, corresponds to detection of three modified nucleotides among 10(7) native nucleotides (the calculation is based on use of 50 microg calf thymus DNA). An adduct formation ratio at the DNA of 3.6 adducts per 1000 nucleotides was measured, which is 75% lower than for reaction with monomeric 2'-deoxy-nucleotides. In addition, a substantial amount of phosphate adducts were detected, but in DNA the rate of phosphate formation was lower than with monomeric nucleotides. Most probably these adducts escaped unnoticed when 31P-post-labelling was employed.

The detection and fragmentation behaviour of adducts of the chemotherapeutic cis-diamminedichloroplatinum(II) (cisplatin) with the dinucleosidemonophosphates d(ApG), d(GpG) and d(TpC) as model compounds for DNA adducts in an ion trap with electrospray ionization were studied. Mainly the monofunctional adduct, the bifunctional adduct and the bifunctional adduct with platinum bridging two dinucleosidemonophosphates were detected. In addition, several more complex adducts were seen resulting from reactions among these species. Adduct formation was low in the case of d(TpC). Fragmentation could be controlled strongly by varying the temperature of the transfer capillary; furthermore, tandem mass spectrometric (MS/MS) experiments on both the monofunctional and the bifunctional adducts were performed. For the adducts of d(ApG) and d(GpG) losses of NH(3) and HCl were the most dominant reactions, followed by the losses of one, then another two units of 98 amu from the sugar-phosphate backbone, whereas d(TpC)-Pt predominantly forms the dinucleosidemonophosphate. In the gas phase, the conversion of the monofunctional into the bifunctional adducts through binding to another site in the dinucleotide accompanied by loss of NH(3) or HCl could also be observed. The removal of a ligand from the coordination sphere of the square-planar platinum complexes appeared to be the crucial step for the induction of further fragmentation of the dinucleotide ligand. MS(n) experiments of the bifunctional adducts of d(ApG) and d(GpG) revealed different fragmentation pathways involving the loss of phosphoric acid, metaphosphoric acid, deoxyribose units (intact or dehydrated) and the nucleobases in different orders, leaving characteristic binding site-determining fragments. Fragmentation of these ions was also performed, mainly resulting in fragmentation of the bases. The study confirmed the remarkable stability of the platinum-guanine bond compared with other nucleobases., (Copyright 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

The quantitative determination of nucleotides from DNA modified by styrene oxide is described using a combination of inductively coupled plasma high-resolution mass spectrometry (ICP-HRMS) and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), both interfaced to reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). LC/ICP-MS (resolution > 1500 to discriminate against 15N16O+ and 14N16OH+) was employed to determine quantitatively the content of modified nucleotides in standard solutions based on the signal of phosphorus; phosphoric acid served as an internal standard. By means of the standard addition technique the sensitivity of the LC/ESI-MS approach was subsequently determined. Since a comparison of UV, ICP and ESI-MS data suggested that in ESI-MS the ionization efficiency of the adducts is identical within the error limits, quantitative determination of all adducts is possible. For LC/ESI-MS with single ion monitoring, the detection limit for styrene oxide adducts of nucleotides was determined to be 20 pg absolute or 14 modified in 10(8) unmodified nucleotides in a 5 micrograms DNA sample, which comes close to the best methods available for the detection of chemical modifications in DNA.

Styrene is one of the most important synthetic chemicals in the world and is subject to investigations concerning carcinogenicity and mutagenicity due to the active metabolite, styrene-7,8-oxide. This epoxide shows a tendency to react, among others, with DNA and DNA constituents. The in vitro reaction of styrene oxide with DNA was investigated by cleaving incubated calf thymus DNA with two different enzymes, namely Benzonase and alkaline phosphatase, to obtain oligonucleotides of the type n-nucleotide-(n-1)-phosphate with chain length from 2 to 8 bases. Alkylated and nonalkylated nucleotides were separated in groups according to their chain length using capillary zone electrophoresis and were detected with electrospray mass spectrometry. This improvement in sensitivity made it possible to obtain new information about the reaction of styrene oxide with DNA, especially to detect unknown reaction products. The results indicate that primarily purine bases were alkylated by styrene oxide before pyrimidine bases, which react with higher concentrations of styrene oxide. This means that in addition to the already reported adducts in DNA at the N-7-, O6- and N2-position of guanine also adducts at the nucleophilic sites of adenine can be found using mass spectrometry. We anticipate for the future this procedure will allow us to investigate base sequence specific reactions as well as interactions from xenobiotics and cytostatic drugs, since reaction products would directly be detectable.

The reaction of styrene oxide with DNA components was studied using separation by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) and detection by negative-ion electrospray mass spectrometry (MS). The CZE-MS interface was built for a sector field mass spectrometer. The reaction of styrene oxide with mononucleotides (dGMP, dAMP) was used to optimize the relevant separation parameters and to gather the first information about the behaviour of the possible products. With these mixtures, sample stacking procedures were developed and the scope of collision-induced dissociations were studied. From the fragments recorded, information about the reaction sites in the nucleotides was obtained. Further, the reaction with intact calf thymus DNA was investigated. The DNA was digested into oligonucleotides using the previously described approach with Benzonase, an unspecific nuclease, and alkaline phosphatase. Styrene oxide mono-adducts in dinucleotides, trinucleotides and tetranucleotides were detected, whereas pentanucleotides exhibit mono- and discernible amounts of di-adducts. The hexanucleotides were generally modified twice. The alkylated species moved faster than the unmodified oligomers.