Alkylation of DNA by Organophosphorus Pesticides

Abstract

Methods for the detection of in vivo alkylation of nucleic acids are discussed. Alkylation of mammalian DNA at N‐7 of guanine provides the most sensitive and least equivocal evidence of methylation by an exogenous chemical or its metabolite. No 7‐methylguanine was detected in the combined DNA from the lungs, livers, hearts, brains, kidneys, testes and spleens from 20 rats exposed to 0.064 μg l‐1 of [Me‐14C]‐dichlorvos at a specific radioactivity of 113 Ci mol‐1 for 12 hrs.

Increased N7‐methyldeoxyguanosine DNA adducts after occupational exposure to pesticides and influence of genetic polymorphisms of paraoxonase‐1 and glutathione S‐transferase M1 and T1

“…In recent decades, a number of studies have focused on DNA adducts arising from exposures to alkylating agents [Saffhill et al, 1985;Bartsch, 1996;Drabløs et al, 2004;Kondo et al, 2010] and DNA alkylation by pesticides, mainly the organophosphate (OP) methyl esters, has been investigated by several groups [Bedford and Robinson, 1972;Wild, 1975;Wooder and Wright, 1981;Braun et al, 1982;Dedek et al, 1984;Wiaderkiewicz et al, 1986;Zayed and Mahdi, 1987;Mehl et al, 1994;Ray and Richards, 2001;Du et al, 2013] indicating that the individual, as well as mixes of, pesticides can induce DNA damage through alkylation. Hence the aim of this study was to determine N7-MedG levels in a cohort of greenhouse workers at two periods of a crop season with different levels of pesticide exposure.…”