# BINDING OF ANTHRACYCLINES TO ESR ACTIVE NUCLEIC ACIDS

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI · 1989 · $32,506

## Abstract

The objective of the proposal is to elucidate the interaction and
chemical reaction properties of the two anticancer drugs
daunomycin (DM) and adriamycin (AM) with nucleic acids
containing covalently bound nitroxide radicals as a localized
electron source.  The electron source serves as an activator of
these drugs by first converting them to reduced anthracylines,
which then, depending upon the presence or absence of molecular
oxygen, are expected to react chemically in different ways with
nucleic acid lattices.  The proposed system is ideally suited to
test the hypothesis that reduced anthracyclines produce O2 and
H202 which then will react with proximal DNA to produce strand-
scission.  In the absence of oxygen it is expected that an
intramolecular elimination of the C-7 glycosidic of these drugs
will occur with subsequent nucleic acid drug adduct formation.
The proposed interaction study will be done by electron spin
resonance (ESR) and ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy.  The nucleic
acid damage caused by the activated anthracyclines will be
monitored by gel electrophoresis to detect strand scission and by
high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) to isolate nucleic
acid drug adducts.  The latter will be characterized by high
resolution mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3178305
- **Project number:** 5R01CA039396-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI
- **SAM.gov UEI:** DZ4YCZ3QSPR5
- **Principal Investigator:** ALBERT M BOBST
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1989
- **Award amount:** $32,506
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1987-07-01 → 1991-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3178305

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3178305, BINDING OF ANTHRACYCLINES TO ESR ACTIVE NUCLEIC ACIDS (5R01CA039396-03). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3178305. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*