Electron spin resonance spectroscopy of oxygen radicals generated by synthetic fecapentaene-12 and reduction of fecapentaene mutagenicity to Salmonella typhimurium by hydroxyl radical scavenging.

Fecapentaenes form a class of potent fecal mutagens and have been suggested to play an initiating role in colon carcinogenesis. Although several indications have been found that fecapentaenes may induce oxidative DNA damage as well as DNA alkylation, the mechanism of genotoxicity remains unknown. In this study, electron spin resonance spectroscopy with several spin traps has been used in order to determine whether reactive oxygen species can be formed by fecapentaene-12 (FP-12). No specific conditions could be defined that resulted in the direct formation of oxygen radicals from FP-12. However, peroxidation of FP-12 by various peroxidative enzymes has been shown to result in the formation of superoxide adducts of the spin traps alpha-(4-pyridyl-1-oxide)-N-t-butylnitrone and 5,5-dimethyl-1-pyrroline-N-oxide (DMPO). Addition of superoxide dismutase resulted in a decreased spectrum intensity, whereas the hydroxyl radical scavenger t-butyl alcohol (tBA) appeared of no influence on the signal, both confirming the formation of superoxide. The formation of hydroxyl radical spin adducts has been demonstrated after peroxidation of FP-12 in incubations with the spin-trapping agent 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-piperidine (TMP). Further, the effects of scavenging hydroxyl radicals with respect to the genotoxic potential of FP-12 in the Salmonella mutagenicity assay has been investigated. It was clearly shown that radical scavenging reduced the number of revertants in Salmonella strains TA100, TA102 and TA104. This mutagenicity-reducing effect was more convincing using both spin traps DMPO and TMP as compared to the effect of hydroxyl radical scavengers tBA and DMSO. Based on these findings, a reaction scheme is proposed that suggests the formation of superoxide after peroxidation of FP-12, which is subsequently converted to hydroxyl radicals by the iron-catalysed Haber-Weiss reaction.