Novel uses of mass spectrometry in studies of adducts of alkylating agents with nucleic acids and proteins.

Several recent and major advances in the technology of mass spectrometry (MS) have greatly promoted use of this technique for the study of the interaction of alkylating agents with biomolecules. MS, in combination with gas chromatography (GC), may now be used to quantify adducts of carcinogens with proteins at levels down to 20 pmol/g protein. Soft ionization techniques have proved invaluable in determining the structure of carcinogen adducts with both DNA and proteins, and the newly developed tandem MS promises to be of considerable use in the characterization of complex carcinogen adduct mixtures.