Reaction Kinetics, Product Branching, and Potential Energy Surfaces of 1O2-Induced 9-Methylguanine-Lysine Cross-Linking: A Combined Mass Spectrometry, Spectroscopy, and Computational Study.

We report a kinetics and mechanistic study on the 1O2 oxidation of 9-methylguanine (9MG) and the cross-linking of the oxidized intermediate 2-amino-9-methyl-9H-purine-6,8-dione (9MOGOX) with Nα-acetyl-lysine-methyl ester (abbreviated as LysNH2) in aqueous solutions of different pH. Experimental measurements include the determination of product branching ratios and reaction kinetics using mass spectrometry and absorption spectroscopy, and the characterization of product structures by employing collision-induced dissociation. Strong pH dependence was revealed for both 9MG oxidation and the addition of nucleophiles (water and LysNH2) at the C5 position of 9MOGOX. The 1O2 oxidation rate constant of 9MG was determined to be 3.6 × 107 M-1·s-1 at pH 10.0 and 0.3 × 107 M-1·s-1 at pH 7.0, both of which were measured in the presence of 15 mM LysNH2. The ωB97XD density functional theory coupled with various basis sets and the SMD implicit solvation model was used to explore the reaction potential energy surfaces for the 1O2 oxidation of 9MG and the formation of C5-water and C5-LysNH2 adducts of 9MOGOX. Computational results have shed light on reaction pathways and product structures for the different ionization states of the reactants. The present work has confirmed that the initial 1O2 addition represents the rate-limiting step for the oxidative transformations of 9MG. All of the downstream steps are exothermic with respect to the starting reactants. The C5-cross-linking of 9MOGOX with LysNH2 significantly suppressed the formation of spiroiminodihydantoin (9MSp) resulting from the C5-water addition. The latter became dominant only at the low concentration (∼1 mM) of LysNH2.