• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.23-29
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• 2001

The NBP assay was conducted to determine the photomutagenic or photocarcinogenic potential of alkylating agents. Using a 4-NBP in vitro technique, whereby photochemical treatment on CAS (Chemical Activation System) was performed to investigate the enhancement effect, 20 compounds were shown to undergo alkylating mechanisms with 4-NBP. Chemically meaningful results were obtained with different sets of 20 compounds for the alkylating activities due to the UV irradiation, demonstrating that all of the testing compounds showed increasing photoalkylating effects either in the presence or absence of CAS in comparison with previously reported data, except furoic acid and fumaric acid that showed decreasing effect in the presence of a CAS. Caffeine did not show a meaningful result either. However, these findings demonstrate the effects of potential photoalkylating activity in chemical activation system (CAS) and suggest a potential risk-ranking system for the in vivo assays.