Ochratoxin A (OTA, 1) is a fungal toxin that facilitates single-strand DNA cleavage, DNA adduction, and lipid peroxidation when metabolically activated. To model the enzymatic activation of OTA, we have employed the water-soluble iron(III) meso-tetrakis(4-sulfonatophenyl)porphyrin (FeTPPS) oxidation system. In its presence, OTA has been found to facilitate single-strand cleavage of supercoiled plasmid DNA through production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) (i.e., the hydroxyl radical, HO(*)). The reaction of OTA with the FeTPPS oxidation system also generated three hydroxylated products (chlorine atom still attached), which was taken as evidence for production of the known hydroxylated metabolites (2-4) of OTA. This result suggested that the FeTPPS system served as a reasonable model for the enzymatic activation of OTA. When the reaction of OTA with FeTPPS was carried out in the presence of excess hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) and sodium ascorbate, a hydroquinone species (OTHQ, 5) was detected in which an OH group has replaced the chlorine atom of OTA. The production of OTHQ (5) was dependent on the presence of the reducing agent, sodium ascorbate, which suggested that the oxidation catalyst furnished the quinone derivative OTQ (6) that was subsequently reduced to OTHQ (5) by ascorbate. Utilizing a synthetic sample of OTHQ (5), the hydroquinone was found to undergo autoxidation with a t(1/2) of 11.1 h at pH 7.4, and to possess a pK(a) value of 8.03 for the phenolic oxygen ortho to the carbonyl groups. Our findings imply that the hydroquinone (OTHQ) and quinone (OTQ) metabolites of OTA have the ability to cause alkylation/redox damage and have allowed us to propose a viable pathway for oxidative damage by OTA.