| Summary: | The electrochemical behaviour of novel nicotinic α4β2 subtype receptor partial agonist varenicline (VAR) which is used for smoking cessation, was investigated in Britton-Robinson buffers (pH 2.0-12.0) by cyclic, differential pulse and square wave voltammetry at a hanging mercury drop elctrode. The influence of pH, scan rate, concentration, accumulation potential and time on peak current and potential suggested that in alkaline media the redox process was adsorption controlled. Also, the experimental value of surface coverage, G = 1.03´10-10 mol cm-2, was used to determine the conditions when VAR was fully adsorbed at the electrode surface. Having in mind potential high toxicity of VAR due to the presence of quinoxaline structure, its interaction with DNA was postulated, and studied when both compounds were in the adsorbed state at modified HMDE. Using adsorptive transfer technique, the changes in potential and decrease in normalized peak currents were observed. The estimated value of the ratio of surface-binding constants indicated that the reduced form of VAR interacted with dsDNA more strongly than the oxidized form. Subtle DNA damage under conditions of direct DNA-VAR interaction at room temperature was observed. The proposed type of interaction was an intercalation. This study used simple electroanalytical methodology and showed the potential of DNA/HMDE biosensor for investigation of genotoxic effects.
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