Question

Which of the following best describes the mechanism of action for alkylating agents?

a) acts late in g2 phase, blocking dna production and m phase preventing call division.
b) binds with dna, thereby inhibiting dna and rna synthesis
c) breaks the dna helix strand, thereby interfering with dna replication
d) stabilizes microtubules, inhibiting cell division, effective in g2 and m phases

Answer 1

Alkylating agents act by adding alkyl groups to DNA, particularly guanine, causing errors in replication and leading to damaged or incorrectly coded DNA which can inhibit cell division and replication.

Step-by-step explanation:

The mechanism of action for alkylating agents is best described as the inhibition of DNA by adding alkyl groups to the DNA molecules, primarily guanine. These alkyl groups interfere with the DNA's proper functioning, leading to miscoding and errors in DNA replication. Alkylating agents are known to directly damage DNA in the nucleus of the cell, affecting both the synthesis of DNA and its proper replication.

These chemotherapeutic agents operate by attaching methyl or other alkyl groups to DNA at the wrong places, which hinders base pairing and ultimately leads to incorrect DNA replication. As a result, they can prevent cell replication entirely or cause nonsensical DNA or RNA sequences to be produced, which are not useful for the generation of proteins.