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When alcohol is the answer: Trapping, identifying and quantifying simple alkylating species in aqueous environments
Philip G Penketh1, Krishnamurthy Shyam2, Raymond P Baumann2
1Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520-8063, USA.
Abstract:
Alkylating agents are a significant class of environmental carcinogens as well as commonly used anticancer therapeutics. Traditional alkylating activity assays have utilized the colorimetric reagent 4-(4-nitrobenzyl)pyridine (4NBP). However, 4NBP based assays have a relatively low sensitivity towards harder, more oxophilic alkylating species and are not well suited for the identification of the trapped alkyl moiety due to adduct instability. Herein we describe a method using water as the trapping agent which permits the trapping of simple alkylating electrophiles with a comparatively wide range of softness/hardness and permits the identification of donated simple alkyl moieties.
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