Investigating the Reactivity of Cuminaldehyde and Isovaleraldehyde toward DNA

Aldehydes are among the compounds that are commonly used in production of food and cosmetics and, therefore, come in contact with human bodies more often than expected, which makes it important to have deep understanding of their properties and biological activity. Aldehydes have been known to be involved in the process of chromosomal aberrations and have a potential to react with DNA bases to form adducts. Little is known about the nature and biological potential of these adducts. The goal of this research is to obtain more information with regards to the composition of the two adducts formed in the reactions of isovaleraldehyde and cuminaldehyde, with 2\u27- deoxyguanosine. This information is necessary in studying their genotoxicity as well as in understanding how aldehydes can react with DNA. This research focuses on purification and further structural determination of the adducts that were previously found to form in the reactions of isovaleraldehyde and cuminaldehyde with 2\u27-deoxyguanosine. In these reactions, L-arginine was used to facilitate the reaction while each of the aldehydes was independently reacted with 2\u27- deoxyguanosine in methanol in a sealed flask with constant stirring. The reactions were further analyzed using 1H NMR, HPLC, and TLC