Determination of in vitro- and in vivo-formed DNA adducts of 2-amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoline by capillary liquid chromatography/microelectrospray mass spectrometry

Capillary liquid chromatography/microelectrospray mass spectrometry has bee n applied to the detection of deoxyribonucleoside adducts of the food-deriv ed mutagen 2-amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoline (IQ)from in vitro and in vivo sources. Constant neutral loss (CNL) and selective reaction monitorin g (SRM) techniques with a triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer enabled sensi tive and specific detection of IQ adducts in vitro and in animals. Detectio n of 1 adduct in 10(4) unmodified bases is achieved using CNL scanning dete ction, while the lower detection limits using SRM approach 1 adduct in 10(7 ) unmodified bases using 300 mu g of DNA. The DNA adducts N-(deoxyguanosin- 8-yl)-2-amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoline (dG-C8-IQ) and 5-(deoxyguanos in-N-2-yl)-2-amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoline (dG-N-2-IQ) were detecte d in kidney tissues of chronically treated cynomolgus monkeys at levels and in proportions consistent with previously published P-32-postlabeling data [Turesky, R. J., et al. (1996) Chem. Res, Toxicol. 9, 403-408]. Thus, capi llary tandem LC/MS is a highly sensitive technique, which can be used to sc reen for DNA adducts in vivo.