Pretreatment of normal human fibroblasts and human colon carcinoma cells with MNNG allows chloroethylnitrosourea to produce DNA interstrand crosslinks not observed in cells treated with chloroethylnitrosourea alone.

Chloroethylnitrosoureas (CNU) are antitumor agents which produce DNA interstrand crosslinks. We have proposed that crosslinks are produced in DNA via monoadduct formation at the guanine-O6 position, followed by a delayed reaction with the opposite DNA strand. Human cells are known to differ in their capacity to repair the O6-methylguanine lesion. One example of this repair capacity is the ability of cells to reactivate adenovirus which has been damaged by in vitro treatment with N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG). Cells that repair the virus are designated Mer+ and deficient cells Mer-. In a recent report, we showed a clear correlation between CNU-induced DNA interstrand crosslinking and the Mer phenotype. Mer- cells produced consistently higher levels of interstrand crosslinks than did Mer+ cells. In the present study we have measured the CNU-induced DNA interstrand crosslinking in IMR-90 normal human fibroblasts (Mer+), HT-29 human colon carcinoma cells (Mer+), and VA-13 SV-40 transformed human cells (Mer-) following pretreatment with MNNG. Cells were treated for 1 h with MNNG, then for an additional 1 h with CNU. Comparable levels of CNU-induced DNA interstrand crosslinking were observed in all cell lines. This crosslinking has been previously undetected in the IMR-90 and HT-29 cells. Cytotoxicity studies showed that MNNG pretreatment greatly enhanced the killing of IMR-90 and HT-29 cells by CNU, however, in VA-13 cells the increase in cell kill was smaller. These data suggest that in Mer+ cells a DNA repair system may remove chloroethyl monoadducts before the lethal DNA interstrand crosslinks can form. However, pretreatment of cells with MNNG may saturate this repair system rendering it inoperable.