Hydroquinones cause specific mutations and lead to cellular transformation and in vivo tumorigenesis

Benzo(a)pyrene and benzene are human carcinogens. The metabolic activation of these compounds into ultimate mutagenic and carcinogenic metabolites is prerequisite for their carcinogenic effects. In this report, the mutagenicity and carcinogenicity of hydroquinones of benzo(a)pyrene and benzene was investigated to address two important questions: (1) do hydroquinones contribute to benzo(a)pyrene and benzene carcinogenicity; and (2) how safe is it to increase the levels of NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1), a key enzyme in the generation of hydroquinone. The supF tRNA of the plasmid pSP189 was used as the mutational target in a cell-free and Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell system to study hydroquinone mutagenicity. RNA and protein-free pSP189 DNA was incubated in a cell-free system with benzo(a)pyrene-3,6-quinone and purified NQO1 or with benzoquinone hydroquinone to generate adducted pSP189 DNA. The adducted pSP189 DNA was transfected in human embryonic kidney cells Ad293. In the CHO cell system, monolayer cultures of CHO cells and CHO cells overexpressing NQO1 or P450 reductase were transfected with pSP189 vector DNA, treated with benzo(a)pyrene-3,6-quinone. The adducted and replicated pSP189 DNA was rescued from transfected Ad293 (cell-free system) and CHO cells (CHO cell system), digested with the restriction enzyme Dpn1 to remove unreplicated DNA followed by transformation in Escherichia coli MBM7070. The mutant colonies [white/pale blue on 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl beta-D-galactoside/isopropyl beta-D-thiogalactoside (X-gal/IPTG) plates] were selected, regrown and analysed by DNA sequencing. Mutagenesis experiments demonstrated that hydroquinones cause sequence-specific frameshift mutations involving deletion of a single cytosine from the DNA sequence 5'-172-CCCCC176-3' or a single guanosine from the complementary strand sequence 5'-GGGGG-3' in the supF tRNA gene. This mutation was specific to the hydroquinones, as it was not observed with quinones and other components of the redox cycling (semiquinones and reactive oxygen species). Exposure of BALBc/3T3 cells to hydroquinones resulted in cellular transformation leading to the loss of contact inhibition and regulation of cell growth. The transformation efficiency of BALBc/3T3 cells exposed to hydroquinones was significantly increased by the tumour promoter 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA), indicating that hydroquinones are excellent initiators that require additional co-carcinogens or promoters to exert an effect. The hydroquinone + TPA as well as hydroquinone-transformed BALBc/3T3 cells, when injected s.c. in severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice, produced tumours at 100% frequency. These results establish that hydroquinones lead to mutagenicity and carcinogenicity.