Abstract
The first evidence of alkylation of DNA by environmental chemicals was provided by Brookes and Lawley (1960, 1961) who showed that alkylating mustard gas formed 7-alkylguanine in nucleic acids; mustard gas was reported in 1946 (Auerbach and Robson) to be a chemical mutagen and respiratory tract tumours were observed among workers involved in its manufacture (Wada et al., 1968). The carcinogenicity of the alkylating nitrosamine dimethylnitrosamine (DMN) was first identified in the mid 1950s (Magee and Barnes, 1956) and in the subsequent decade the importance of DNA alkylation in the mutagenicity and carcinogenicity of such alkylating agents became apparent. The development of the thoughts underlying research on carcinogenic alkylating agents have been recently described in an interesting review by Lawley (1989).
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Abbreviations
- 7-medG:
-
7-methyldeoxyguanosine;
- 06-medG:
-
06-methyldeoxyguanosine;
- 3-meAde:
-
3-methyladenine;
- 04-meThy:
-
04-methylthymidine;
- 3-medG:
-
3-methyldeoxyguanosine;
- 06-meGua:
-
06-methylguanine;
- 7-meGua:
-
7-methylguanine
References
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Montesano, R., Hall, J., Hollstein, M., Mironov, N., Wild, C.P. (1990). Alkylation Repair in Human Tissues. In: Sutherland, B.M., Woodhead, A.D. (eds) DNA Damage and Repair in Human Tissues. Basic Life Sciences, vol 53. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0637-5_33
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