Radiocarbon Tracers in Toxicology and Medicine: Recent Advances in Technology and Science

Michael A Malfatti; Bruce A Buchholz; Heather A Enright; Benjamin J Stewart; Ted J Ognibene; A Daniel McCartt; Gabriela G Loots; Maike Zimmermann; Tiffany M Scharadin; George D Cimino; Brian A Jonas; Chong-Xian Pan; Graham Bench; Paul T Henderson; Kenneth W Turteltaub

doi:10.3390/toxics7020027

Radiocarbon Tracers in Toxicology and Medicine: Recent Advances in Technology and Science

Toxics. 2019 May 9;7(2):27. doi: 10.3390/toxics7020027.

Authors

Michael A Malfatti¹, Bruce A Buchholz², Heather A Enright³, Benjamin J Stewart⁴, Ted J Ognibene⁵, A Daniel McCartt⁶, Gabriela G Loots⁷, Maike Zimmermann^{8

9}, Tiffany M Scharadin^{10

11}, George D Cimino¹², Brian A Jonas¹³, Chong-Xian Pan¹⁴, Graham Bench¹⁵, Paul T Henderson^{16

17}, Kenneth W Turteltaub¹⁸

Affiliations

¹ Biosciences and Biotechnology Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA. malfatti1@llnl.gov.
² Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA. buchholz2@llnl.gov.
³ Biosciences and Biotechnology Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA. enright3@llnl.gov.
⁴ Biosciences and Biotechnology Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA. stewart66@llnl.gov.
⁵ Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA. ognibene1@llnl.gov.
⁶ Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA. mccartt1@llnl.gov.
⁷ Biosciences and Biotechnology Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA. loots1@llnl.gov.
⁸ Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology and UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California Davis Medical School, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA. mzimmermann@ucdavis.edu.
⁹ Accelerated Medical Diagnostics Incorporated, Berkeley, CA 94708, USA. mzimmermann@ucdavis.edu.
¹⁰ Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology and UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California Davis Medical School, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA. tscharadin@ucdavis.edu.
¹¹ Accelerated Medical Diagnostics Incorporated, Berkeley, CA 94708, USA. tscharadin@ucdavis.edu.
¹² Accelerated Medical Diagnostics Incorporated, Berkeley, CA 94708, USA. george_cimino@comcast.net.
¹³ Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology and UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California Davis Medical School, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA. bajonas@ucdavis.edu.
¹⁴ Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology and UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California Davis Medical School, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA. cxpan@ucdavis.edu.
¹⁵ Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA. bench1@llnl.gov.
¹⁶ Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology and UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California Davis Medical School, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA. phenderson@ucdavis.edu.
¹⁷ Accelerated Medical Diagnostics Incorporated, Berkeley, CA 94708, USA. phenderson@ucdavis.edu.
¹⁸ Biosciences and Biotechnology Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA. turteltaub2@llnl.gov.

Abstract

This review summarizes recent developments in radiocarbon tracer technology and applications. Technologies covered include accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), including conversion of samples to graphite, and rapid combustion to carbon dioxide to enable direct liquid sample analysis, coupling to HPLC for real-time AMS analysis, and combined molecular mass spectrometry and AMS for analyte identification and quantitation. Laser-based alternatives, such as cavity ring down spectrometry, are emerging to enable lower cost, higher throughput measurements of biological samples. Applications covered include radiocarbon dating, use of environmental atomic bomb pulse radiocarbon content for cell and protein age determination and turnover studies, and carbon source identification. Low dose toxicology applications reviewed include studies of naphthalene-DNA adduct formation, benzo[a]pyrene pharmacokinetics in humans, and triclocarban exposure and risk assessment. Cancer-related studies covered include the use of radiocarbon-labeled cells for better defining mechanisms of metastasis and the use of drug-DNA adducts as predictive biomarkers of response to chemotherapy.

Keywords: DNA adducts; accelerator mass spectrometry; benzo[a]pyrene; biomarkers; cavity ring down spectrophotometry; cell turnover; metastasis; naphthalene; radiocarbon; triclocarban.

Publication types

Review

Abstract

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