Analysis and Excision of Ring-opened Phosphoramide Mustard-Deoxyguanine Adducts in DNA¹

The reaction products formed by reacting deoxyguanosine with phosphoramide mustard at pH 7.4 have been analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography and Schiff's reaction. The adducts consisted of five fractions of phosphoramide mustard-imidazole ring-opened deoxyguanosine complexes and one fraction of each of intact phosphoramide mustard-deoxyguanosine and phosphoramide mustard-dideoxyguanosine complexes. Thus, contrary to views held previously, the imidazole ring of alkylated guanine can undergo fission at physiological pH. Schiff's reaction suggests that some fractions of phosphoramide mustard-ring-opened deoxyguanosine adducts contain formyl groups, while others do not. When DNA containing phosphoramide mustard-ring-opened guanine adducts was treated with formamidopyrimidine-DNA glycosylase, there was enzymatic removal of formylated ring-opened guanine adducts. The quantification of the full amount of ring-opened guanine released by formamidopyrimidine-DNA glycosylase was precluded by the limitations of our assay system, which requires that any two ring-opened guanines cross-linked by phosphoramide mustard be both excised in order to be detected.