ANTIBODIES TO DNA ALKYLATION ADDUCTS AS ANALYTICAL TOOLS IN CHEMICAL CARCINOGENESIS

The availability of antibodies recognising specific carcinogen-induced alkylated DNA adducts has contributed, and will continue to contribute, to the study of the biological significance of these adducts with respect to their toxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic properties. Whilst the antibodies have undoubtedly facilitated the study of such mechanistic aspects in animal and cell-culture systems, their availability has also had a crucial and central role in the area of quantitating human exposure to environmental alkylating agents. This latter field of research was initially established and developed as a result of the availability of suitable antibodies. This review will only briefly cover the range of adducts for which antibodies and immunoassays are available, indicating some of the relevant properties of the applied techniques, and will focus on the areas of research which can be furthered specifically by these immunoanalytical tools. Previous extensive reviews of antibodies to carcinogen-DNA adducts are available (Muller and Rajewsky, 1981; Poirier, 1981; Strickland and Boyle, 1984; Kriek et al., 1984). © 1990.