Tobacco-specific nitrosamines ? metabolism and biological monitoring of exposure to tobacco products

✍ Scribed by Richter, E. ;Sch�ffler, G. ;Malone, A. ;Schulze, J.

• Book ID: 104654864
• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1992
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 402 KB
• Volume: 70-70
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1432-1440
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00184664

✦ Synopsis

Tobacco-specific nitrosamines are derived from nicotine and related tobacco alkaloids and can be detected in tobacco products as well as in mainstream and sidestream smoke. Two of them, N-nitrosonornicotine and 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone, are strong carcinogens in laboratory animals. Because of its organospecificity for the lung, the latter is considered to be a causative factor in tobacco-related human lung cancer. Upon metabolic activation both nitrosamines give rise to a common reactive intermediate binding to macromolecules such as DNA and haemoglobin and hydrolysing to 4-hydroxy-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone. Because of easy access to large quantities of haemoglobin from blood samples, it is most suitable for biomonitoring human exposure to tobacco-specific nitrosamines. A highly sensitive analytical method for determination of femtogram amounts of 4-hydroxy-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone provides an approach to assess individual exposure to active and passive smoking.