Electrolytic reduction of nitroheterocyclic drugs leads to biologically important damage in DNA

The effect of electrolytic reduction of nitroimidazole drugs on biologically active DNA was studied. The results show that reduction of the drugs in the presence of DNA affects inactivation for both double-stranded (RF) and single-stranded phi X174 DNA. However, stable reduction products did not make a significant contribution to the lethal damage in DNA. This suggests that probably a short-lived intermediate of reduction of nitro-compounds is responsible for damage to DNA.