Oxidative DNA base damage by the antitumor agent 3-amino-1,2,4-benzotriazine 1,4-dioxide (tirapazamine).

Tirapazamine is a bioreductively activated DNA-damaging agent that selectively kills the hypoxic cells found in solid tumors. In this work, base excision repair enzymes were used to provide evidence that tirapazamine causes significant amounts of damage to both purine and pyrimidine residues in double-stranded DNA.