Interactions of the anti-tumor sesquiterpene hydroquinone avarol with DNA in vitro

Changes in electrophoresis pattern after interaction of supercoiled plasmid pBR322 DNA with avarol was studied at a micromolar concentration of reactants under mild reaction conditions. Interactions of avarol with linear high-molecular CT-DNA at millimolar concentrations were analyzed by electrophoresis and UV spectrophotometry. It was observed that avarol is capable of quenching ethidium bromide fluorescence in DNA bands. An increase in the absorbance of DNA was detected. The results indicate the binding of avarol to DNA and/or modification of nucleotide bases.