The effects of 1-ethynylpyrene (EP), 1-vinylpyrene (VP) and 2-ethynylnaphthalene (EN) on the covalent binding of 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA) and of benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) to the epidermal DNA in mouse skin were investigated. When applied topically, 5 min before an initiating dose of 10 nmol DMBA or of 200 mnol B[a]P was an effective inhibitor of the formation of the covalent complexes of these procarcinogenic polycydic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with the epidermal DNA. VP, applied under the same conditions, was a significantly less effective inhibitor of the binding of DMBA to DNA and showed even weaker inhibition of the binding of B[a]P. EN was ineffective as an inhibitor of the binding of either DMBA or B[a]P. These results establish that both the pyrene nucleus and the ethynyl substi tuent of EP contribute to the effective inhibition of the binding of DMBA and B[a]P to the epidermal DNA of mouse skin. No significant changes in the ratios of the anti- to the syn diol epoxide-DNA adducts of DMBA or of B[a]P were produced by doses of EP that produced inhibitions of the binding to DNA. At doses of VP that inhibited covalent binding of both DMBA and B[a]P no changes in DMIBA-DNA adduct distributions were observed but changes in the relative proportions of several B[a]P DNA adducts were noted. These data are discussed in terms of the potential of aryl acetylenes to act as suicide inhibitors (mechanism-based inactivators) of cytochrome P450-dependent monooxygenase isozymes. © 1990 Oxford University Press.
