Acrylonitrile enhances H2O2-mediated DNA damage via nitrogen-centered radical formation

Acrylonitrile (ACN) is widely used as a monomer in the polymer industry. Studies on carcinogenicity in rats exposed to ACN showed increased incidences of tumors including glial cell tumors of central nervous system and increased production of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-oxo-dG) in glial cells. Using a high performance liquid chromatograph equipped with an electrochemical detector, we revealed that ACN enhanced the formation of 8-oxo-dG induced by H2O2 and Cu(II) whereas ACN itself did not cause DNA damage. The enhancing effect of ACN was much more efficient in the double-stranded DNA than that in the single-stranded DNA. Experiments with 32P-labeled DNA revealed that addition of ACN enhanced the site-specific DNA damage at guanines, particularly at 5'-site of the GG and GGG sequences while H2O2/Cu(II) induced piperidine-labile sites at thymine, cytosine, and guanine residues. An electron spin resonance spectroscopy using alpha-(4-pyridyl-1-oxide)-N-tert-butylnitrone showed that a nitrogen-centered radical was generated from ACN in the presence of H2O2 and Cu(II). It is considered that ACN enhances H2O2-mediated DNA damage via nitrogen-centered radical formation. We will discuss the mechanism of the enhancing effect on oxidative DNA damage in relation to expression of ACN carcinogenicity.