8-Bromoguanosine in Aqueous Solutions
J. Am. Chem. Soc., Vol. 122, No. 9, 2000 1901
oligonucleotides contaning a 5′-ABrU-3′ sequence.12 These
authors proposed single electron transfer from the adjacent
adenine moiety of the 5′-side to the photoexcited 5-Br-uracil
residue. In turn, vinyl radical 2 either abstracts a hydrogen (from
a hydrogen donor5,6 and/or from the closest sugar unit of the
backbone12) or induces cross-linking to amino acid deriva-
tives.11,13 To our knowledge the analogous electron adducts of
8-bromo purine derivatives have not been reported to date.14
aromatic compounds.18 Herein we report detailed chemical
radiation studies of 8-Br-Guo in aqueous solution where this
mechanistic scenario is partially true. In particular, we have
investigated the reaction of 8-Br-Guo with the reducing spe-
cies: eaq-, H•, (CH3)2CO•-.
Results and Discussion
Generation of Radicals.19 Radiolysis of neutral water leads
to the species eaq-, HO•, and H• as shown in eq 2 where the
values in parentheses represent the yields expressed in terms
of G-values (molecules/100 eV of absorbed radiation). The
reactions of eaq- with the substrates were studied by irradiating
deoxygenated solutions containing 0.25 M t-BuOH or 0.13 M
i-PrOH. In the presence of t-BuOH, only HO• radicals are
scavenged (eq 3, k3 ) 6.0 × 108 M-1 s-1), whereas both HO•
and H• species react with i-PrOH (eqs 4 and 5, k4 ) 1.9 × 109
M-1 s-1, k5 ) 7.4 × 107 M-1 s-1). In alkaline solution, in the
The effect of bromination was also considered for macro-
molecules such as RNA and DNA, where early studies showed
the occurrence of mutations and changes in the amino acid
composition of an isolated protein.15 Bromination produces
significant biochemical modifications of certain nucleic acids,
the most important being the formation of 5-bromopyrimidine
and 8-bromopurine nucleotides.16 In their recent report Sevilla
and co-workers studied with ESR spectroscopy the electron
transfer occurring within bromine-doped DNA, which contained
5-bromo-6-hydroxy-5,6-dihydrothymine, 5-bromocytosine, and
8-bromoguanine moieties in a 0.2:1:0.23 ratio.16 The observed
paramagnetic species that result from the electron scavenging
are assigned to pyrimidine-type adducts. Based on comparison
with some available data, they suggested that 8-Br-dGuo is not
expected to compete effectively for the electron with the other
brominated moieties, although they pointed out the experimental
difficulties associated with the determination of 8-Br-dGuo as
an electron trap in the system.
-
presence of t-BuOH, additional eaq is produced from the
reaction of H• with HO- (eq 6, k6 ) 2.2 × 107 M-1 s-1),
whereas at acidic pH (e3) the reaction of eaq- with H+ to give
H• (eq 7, k7 ) 2.3 × 1010 M-1 s-1) becomes relevant.
Interestingly, von Sonntag and co-workers have shown that
the electron adducts (and/or their heteroatom-protonated forms)
of thymine, adenine, and cytosine transfer an electron to 5-Br-
uridine, whereas the electron adduct of guanine does not behave
accordingly.6 They concluded that guanine can serve as the
ultimate sink for the electron which is in antithesis with the
general thought of the electron transfer within the DNA
molecule, i.e., the electron loss resides at the guanine moieties
and the electron gain is at the pyrimidine moieties.17
The (CH3)2CO•- species was generated by irradiating N2O-
saturated solutions containing 0.13 M i-PrOH at pH 13. The
presence of N2O transforms efficiently eaq- into the O•- radical
(eq 8, k8 ) 9.1 × 109 M-1 s-1). The HO• radical [pKa(HO•) )
11.9] is in equilibrium with its conjugated base O•- (eq 9/-9,
k9 ) 1.2 × 1010 M-1 s-1, k-9 ) 1 × 108 s-1). Hydrogen
abstraction from i-PrOH by HO•, H•, and O•- produces (CH3)2C-
(•)OH which deprotonates to give (CH3)2CO•- (eq 10, pKa )
12.03).20 The radical anion is a better reductant than the neutral
radical, (E°[(CH3)2CO,H+/(CH3)2C(•)OH] ) -1.39 V, E°[(CH3)2-
CO/(CH3)2CO•-)] ) -2.1 V).21,22
On the basis of these observations, we thought that 8-Br-
Guo could be prompted to capture electrons and perhaps it loses
the bromine ion rapidly like the 5-Br-uracil derivatives, to give
the corresponding radical in the 8-position. This expectation is
further strengthened by a very recent report which has shown
that debromination of 8-Br-dGuo can be achieved in a quantita-
tive yield by methylene blue and visible light similar to bromo-
(12) Sugiyama, H.; Fujimoto, K.; Saito, I. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1995, 117,
2945. Sugiyama, H.; Fujimoto, K.; Saito, I.; Kawashima, H.; Sekine, T.;
Ishido, Y. Tetrahedron Lett. 1996, 37, 1805. Cook, G. P.; Greenberg, M.
M. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1996, 118, 10025. Sugiyama, H.; Fujimoto, K.; Saito,
I. Tetrahedron Lett. 1997, 38, 8057. Fujimoto, K.; Sugiyama, H.; Saito, I.
Tetrahedron Lett. 1998, 39, 2137.
(13) Norris, C. L.; Meisenheimer, P. L.; Koch, T. H. J. Am. Chem. Soc.
1996, 118, 5796 and references therein.
(14) Photolysis (at 254 nm) of 8-bromo-2′-deoxyadenosine in deareated
aqueous solution gave 5′,8-cyclo-2′-deoxyadenosine in a low yield. See:
Romieu, A.; Gasparutto, D.; Molko, D.; Cadet, J. J. Org. Chem. 1998, 63,
5245.
The radicals CO2•- [E°(CO2/CO2•-) ) -1.91 V] and CH2O•-
•
[the conjugated base of CH2OH: pKa(•CH2OH) ) 10.71;
E°(CH2O/CH2O•-) ) -1.81 V]21 were generated by irradiating
N2O-saturated solutions at pH 13 containing 0.1 M sodium
formate or methanol, respectively. The rate constants for the
scavenging of H• and HO• radicals by the formate ion are 2.1
(15) Jones, A. S.; Woodhouse, D. L. Nature 1959, 183, 1603. Brammer,
K. W. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1963, 72, 217.
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McClymont, J. D.; Malone, M. E.; Mather, A. N.; Podmore, I. D.; Sweeney,
M. C.; Symons, M. C. R. J. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans. 2 1992, 1409.
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(18) Venkatarangan, L.; Yang, D.-H.; Epling, G. A.; Basu, A. K.
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(19) (a) Buxton, G. V.; Greenstock, C. L.; Helman, W. P.; Ross, A. B.
J. Phys. Chem. Ref. Data, 1988, 17, 513 and references therein. (b) Ross,
A. B.; Mallard, W. G.; Helman, W. P.; Buxton, G. V.; Huie, R. E.; Neta,
P. NDRL-NIST Solution Kinetic Database, Ver. 3; Notre Dame Radition
Laboratory: Notre Dame, IN and NIST Standard Reference Data: Gaith-
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(20) Laroff, G. P.; Fesseden, R. W. J. Phys. Chem. 1973, 77, 1283.
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(22) All the redox potentials given in this work are vs NHE.