Generation of hydroxyl radicals by nucleohistone-bound metal-adriamycin complexes.

A recently developed method has been utilized to demonstrate the generation of hydroxyl radicals (HO.) in the immediate proximity of DNA by copper(II)/iron(III)-adriamycin in the presence of ascorbate and hydrogen peroxide. SECCA, a succinylated derivative of coumarin, generates the fluorescent 7-hydroxy-SECCA following reaction with HO.. SECCA was coupled to polylysine or to histone H1 and then complexed to DNA. When HO. was generated in the proximity of DNA by polylysine-coupled iodine-125, which emits short range Auger electrons, 7-hydroxy-SECCA was produced. DMSO was only moderately efficient in reducing the fluorescence induction, demonstrating the "local" generation of HO. in this system. Copper(II)/iron(III)-adriamycin in the presence of ascorbate and hydrogen peroxide generated the fluorescent 7-hydroxy-SECCA both when SECCA was free in solution and when SECCA was DNA-conjugated. With SECCA free in solution, the fluorescence induction was almost eliminated in the presence of HO. scavengers (ethanol, tert-butanol or DMSO) and the relative efficiency of the scavengers in reducing the fluorescence followed their rate constant with HO.. Furthermore, SECCA incubated with a single oxygen-generating compound demonstrated no fluorescence induction. When SECCA was positioned in close proximity to DNA as a SECCA-histone-H1-DNA complex, the relative efficiency of the scavengers in reducing the fluorescence still followed their rate constant with HO.; overall however the scavengers were much less effective in reducing the fluorescence, due presumably to the formation of HO. radical in the immediate vicinity of DNA. These data suggest that copper(II)/iron(III)-adriamycin produces HO. in the presence of ascorbate and hydrogen peroxide whether unbound or bound to DNA and suggest that in the latter case scavengers would not prevent HO. from attacking chromatin. In addition, the ability of DMSO to trap HO. was shown to decrease as the conformation of the H1-DNA complex becomes more compact indicating the strong dependence of the trapping ability on chromatin conformation.