Enzymatic single-electron reduction and aerobic cytotoxicity of tirapazamine and its 1-oxide and nor-oxide metabolites

Abstract

Aerobic cytotoxicity of 3-amino-1,2,4-benzotriazine-1,4-dioxide (tirapazamine, TPZ), a bioreductively activated hypoxia-specific anticancer agent, is responsible for TPZ side effects in chemotherapy. In order to clarify its mechanisms, we examined the aerobic cytotoxicity of TPZ and its main metabolites, 3-amino-1,2,4-benzotriazine-1-oxide and 3-amino-1,2,4-benzotriazine in murine hepatoma MH22a cells, and their reduction by NADPH:cytochrome P-450 reductase (P-450R) and ferredoxin:NADP⁺ reductase (FNR). Analogous studies of several quinones and nitroaromatic compounds with similar values of single-electron reduction midpoint potentials (E¹₇) were carried out. In single-electron reduction by P-450R and FNR, the reactivity of TPZ and its monoxide was similar to that of quinones and nitroaromatics, and increased with an increase in their E¹₇. The cytotoxicity of TPZ and its metabolites possessed a prooxidant character, because it was partly prevented by an antioxidant N,N’-diphenyl-p-phenylene diamine and desferrioxamine, and potentiated by 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea. Importantly, the cytotoxicity of TPZ and, possibly, its 1-N-oxide, was much higher than that of quinones and nitroaromatics with similar values of E¹₇ and redox cycling activities. A possible additional factor in the aerobic cytotoxicity of TPZ is its reductive activation in oxygen-poor cell nuclei, leading to the formation of DNA-damaging species similar to those forming under hypoxia.