Oxygen depletion in irradiated aqueous solutions containing electron affinic hypoxic cell radiosensitizers.

The oxygen concentration in stirred aqueous solutions contained in sealed glass vessels was continuously monitored during irradiation with a sensitive Clark-type oxygen probe. The yield of radiolytic oxygen depletion, g(-O2), in alpha medium was determined to be about 0.44 microM/Gy (equivalent to 3.6 ppm/rad) over a range of oxygen from about 1,000 to 209,000 ppm. Over this same range of oxygen concentration, it was observed that oxygen is depleted in the presence of misonidazole, and that g(-O2) is slightly reduced at low oxygen and at high misonidazole concentrations. Oxygen depletion was observed in solutions of other nitroaromatic sensitizers of widely varying electron affinities: metronidazole, paranitroacetophenone, nitrofurazone, and nifurpipone. Significant protection of oxygen from radiolytic depletion was observed in concentrated solutions of nifurpipone, the most electron affinic drug studied (E17 = -214 mV). No such effect was observed for the least electron affinic compound, metronidazole (E17 = -486 mV).