Glen E. Toney

Benz[j]aceanthrylene: A novel polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon with bacterial mutagenic activity

Initial studies on the mutagenicity and metabolism of a novel cyclopenta-PAH, benz[j]aceanthrylene, are reported in the Salmonella bacterial system. The spectrum of activity of benz[j]aceanthrylene over the 5 Ames tester strains is similar to that of benzo[a]pyrene, and the dose-response curves for strain TA98 are comparable. Like other biologically active PAH, benz[j]aceanthrylene is a frame-shift mutagen requiring metabolic activation. An interesting feature of the S9 dependence of activity is the low concentration (congruent to 10-fold smaller than for benzo[a]pyrene) at which optimal activity is observed. The 1,2-dihydro-1,2-diol (product of metabolism of the cyclopenta-ring) appears to be the predominant metabolite, and implicates the 1,2-oxide as the ultimate mutagenic species.

Molecular structure of meso tetra(2,4,6-trimethoxyphenyl)porphyrin, a free base precursor of a ‘bis-pocket’ iron complex

The crystal structure of the free base meso tetra(2,4,6-trimethoxyphenyl)porphyrin indicates that the bulky meso substituents form ‘pockets’ on both faces of the porphyrin plane 2.27 A deep and 9.74 A on the diagonal between o-methoxy oxygen atoms on the same face.