Malachite green (MG), a triphenylmethane dye used to treat fungal and protozoan infections in fish, undergoes sequential oxidation to produce various N-demethylated derivatives (monodes-, dides(sym)-, dides(unsym)-, trides-, and tetrades-) both before and after reduction to leucomalachite green (LMG). The close structure resemblance of the metabolites with aromatic amine carcinogens implicates a potential genotoxicity from exposure to MG. The availability of the synthetic standards is important for metabolic and DNA adduct studies of MG. This paper describes a simple and versatile method for the synthesis of MG, LMG, and their N-demethylated metabolites. The synthesis involves a coupling of 4-(dimethylamino)benzophenone or 4-nitrobenzophenone with the aryllithium reagents derived from appropriately substituted 4-bromoaniline derivatives, followed by treatment with HCl in methanol. The resulting cationic MG and their leuco analogues showed systematic UV/vis spectral and tandem mass fragmentation patterns consistent with sequential N-demethylation. The extensive (1)H and (13)C spectral assignments of the metabolites were aided by the availability of (13)C(7)-labeled MG and LMG. The results indicate the existence of a resonance structure with the cationic charge located in the central methane carbon (C(7)). The synthetic procedure is general in scope so that it can be extended to the preparation of N-demethylated metabolites of other structurally related N-methylated triphenylmethane dyes.

Benzo[a]pyrene diol epoxides (BPDEs) are the ultimate carcinogenic species of benzo[a]pyrene, a prototype polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH). BPDE-modified DNA duplexes can adopt multiple conformations depending on the nature of the modified bases, the stereochemistry at the location of the covalent linkage, and the sequence context surrounding the lesion site. In this paper, we describe the preparation of enantiomeric 2-fluoro-BPDEs, trans-(7R,8S)-dihydroxy-(9S,10R)- and trans-(7S,8R)-(9R,10S)-epoxy-7,8,9,10-tetrtahydro-2-fluorobenzo[a]pyrene (22 and 23, respectively), as models for probing the BPDE-induced conformational heterogeneity. The multistep synthesis of the target diol epoxides described herein entails regiospecific succinoylation of 2-fluoropyrene, followed by a ring closure, regio- and stereospecific construction of the 7,8-dihydrodiol functionality, and a subsequent meta-chloroperbenzoic acid-mediated epoxidation. Stereoselectivity was achieved by using Jacobsen chiral catalysts, which produced greater than approximately 90% enantiomeric excess. Absolute configurations at the C(7,8) carbons of the FBP derivatives were determined by comparison of the circular dichroism (CD) spectra with those reported for the BP analogues. Analysis of the 3J(7,8) vicinal coupling constants, CD shape, and charge density calculations all indicated that the prepared anti-FBPDEs preferentially adopt the pseudo-diequatorial C(7,8) diol conformation. Hydrolysis of anti-FBPDEs produced a 9:1 ratio of trans- to cis-opened tetraols. Reactions of each of the anti-FBPDEs with deoxyguanosine 5'-monophosphate produced predominantly trans-anti-N2-dG as the major adducts. Analogous reactions with two 11-mer oligodeoxynucleotides (5'-CCATXGCTACC-3' where X = dT, dC) gave FBP-modified oligodeoxynucleotides with structures that were characterized by enzyme digest/HPLC and electrospray ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry data. The oligonucleotide adducts were annealed with the appropriate sequences to form fully complementary duplexes [(5'-CCATXGCTACC-3')(5'-GGTAGCYATGG-3'), G = FBP-N2-dG adduct, X = dT, Y = dA in duplex I; X = dC, Y = dG in duplex II] for CD and UV melting studies. The results of the present study were consistent with those reported previously for BPDE-modified duplexes in the same sequence contexts and support the utility of FBPDEs as useful structural probes.

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