Enzymatic aziridine synthesis from beta amino-alcohols--a new example of endogenous carcinogen formation.

Abstract

BETA aminoalcohols are not only used as drugs, such as ephedrine, chloramphenicol or pronethalol, but also occur naturally in animals and man, as adrenaline and noradrenaline, for example. It would be interesting to know whether these β aminoalcohols can be metabolised to aziridines, a class of carcinogenic compounds. Howe1 described the carcinogenicity of pronethalol (I) and supposed that the aziridine (II) could be the ultimate carcinogen (Fig. 1).