Markers of exposure to carcinogens

Methods have been developed for the detection of exposure to carcinogens and other DNA damaging agents in experimental animals and man through the detection of carcinogens or their metabolic derivatives in body fluids, or through adducts bound covalently to DNA or hemoglobin. The successful use of urinary markers of genotoxic exposures has been reported with respect to nitrosoproline as an indicator of exposure to N-nitroso compounds. The same approach has been used to detect AFB1 and AFB1-N7-Gua as markers of exposure to aflatoxin B1; of 3-methyladenine produced as a result of exposure to methylating agents; and thymine glycol as an indicator of exposure to agents causing oxidative damage to DNA. Detection of adducts formed between genotoxic agents and hemoglobin has been reported in studies of populations occupationally exposed to ethylene oxide, in which 3-hydroxyhistidine and 3-hydroxyvaline have been measured, and in smokers, whose hemoglobin has been found to contain levels of 4-aminobiphenyl and 3-hydroxyvaline that were correlated with the frequency of cigarette smoking. Detection of DNA adducts of genotoxic agents in the cells and tissues of exposed individuals has also been accomplished through the use of several types of analytical methods. Immunoassays and physicochemical methods have been applied to detect adducts formed through the major intermediate in the activation of benzo(a)pyrene, the 7,8-diol-9,10-epoxide (BPDE). This adduct has been found in the DNA of peripheral leukocytes of workers in foundries, aluminum manufacturing plants, roofers, and coke oven plants, and also in cigarette smokers.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)