In these studies, we demonstrate that
N2,3-ethenoguanine (
N2,3-
Gua) is formed from lipidperoxidation as well as other oxidative reactions. Ethyl linoleate (EtLA) or 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal(HNE) was reacted with dGuo in the presence of
tert-butyl hydroperoxide (t-BuOOH) for 72 hat 50
C. The resulting
N2,3-
Gua was characterized by liquid chromatography/electrospraymass spectroscopy and by gas chromatography/high-resolution mass spectral (GC/HRMS)analysis of its pentafluorobenzyl derivative following immunoaffinity chromatography purification. The amounts of
N2,3-
Gua formed were 825 ± 20 and 1720 ± 50
N2,3-
Gua adducts/10
6normal dGuo bases for EtLA and HNE, respectively, corresponding to 38- and 82-fold increasesin the amount of
N2,3-
Gua compared to controls containing only t-BuOOH. Controls containingt-BuOOH but no lipid resulted in a >1000-fold increase in the level of
N2,3-
Gua over dGuothat was not subjected to incubation. EtLA and HNE, in the presence of t-BuOOH, were reactedwith calf thymus DNA at 37
C for 89 h. The amounts of
N2,3-
Gua formed in intact ctDNAwere 114 ± 32 and 52.9 ± 16.7
N2,3-
Gua adducts/10
6 normal dGuo bases for EtLA and HNE,respectively. These compared to 2.02 ± 0.17 and 2.05 ± 0.47
N2,3-
Gua adducts/10
6 normaldGuo bases in control DNA incubated with t-BuOOH, but no lipid. [
13C
18]EtLA was reactedwith dGuo to determine the extent of direct alkylation by lipid peroxidation byproducts. Thesereactions resulted in a 89-93% level of incorporation of the
13C label into
N2,3-
Gua whenEtLA and dGuo were in equimolar concentrations, when EtLA was in 10-fold molar excess,and when deoxyribose (thymidine) was in 10-fold molar excess. Similar reactions with ctDNAresulted in an 86% level of incorporation of the
13C label. These data demonstrate that
N2,3-
Gua is formed from EtLA and HNE under peroxidizing conditions by direct alkylation. Thedata also suggest, however, that
N2,3-
Gua is also formed by an alternative mechanism thatinvolves some other oxidative reaction which remains unclear.