Characterization of the 4-(benzothiazol-2-yl)phenylnitrenium ion from a putative metabolite of a model antitumor drug.

The 4-(benzothiazol-2-yl)phenylnitrenium ion 11 is generated from hydrolysis or photolysis of O-acetoxy-N-(4-(benzothiazol-2-yl)phenyl)hydroxylamine 8, a model metabolite of 2-(4-aminophenyl)benzothiazole 1 and its ring-substituted derivatives that are being developed for a variety of medicinal applications, including antitumor, antibacterial, antifungal, and imaging agents. Previously, we showed that 11 had an aqueous solution lifetime of 530 ns, similar to the 560 ns lifetime of the 4-biphenylylnitrenium ion 12 derived from the well-known chemical carcinogen 4-aminobiphenyl. We now show that the analogy between these two cations extends well beyond their lifetimes. The initial product of hydration of 11 is the quinolimine 16, which can be detected as a long-lived reactive intermediate that hydrolyzes in a pH-dependent manner into the final hydrolysis product, the quinol 15. This hydrolysis behavior is equivalent to that previously described for a large number of ester metabolites of carcinogenic arylami...