Comment · Thu, September 18, 2014 · Ceretropic
Can 9-fluorenol/hydrafinil possibly intercalate/damage DNA?
Original post in this thread
inquilinekea · 6 points
It is a PAH that's not too distantly related from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-Acetylaminofluorene, which is a huge mutagen.
I'm currently trying to go through papers right now. The only real one I could find so far is http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0300483X09003370# . It indicates that 9-fluorenol has some ability to interact with DNA, compared with the other PAHs (it's smaller than the others, but that doesn't say much since the others are really potent intercalating agents). But the research is early, so anything is still possible.
In atomic force microscopy, a clear morphological change of calf thymus DNA from linear type to condensation form was observed after binding with 9-hydroxyfluorene. The change is similar to the one observed with the DNA-intercalating electrochemical indicator, suggesting that 9-hydroxyfluorene binds with DNA also by intercalation
There's also this: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23254141
9-fluorenol is used as a precursor for some intercalating agents (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15028268 ) though this might not say much about its own potential
What they were answering
Direct reply to the original post — see the thread post above.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
Well the reason that structure can be harmful, is that it metabolizes to hydroxyacetylaminofluorene. 9-fluorenol cannot do that. It's the reactive ions that come off during the metabolism that are harmful. Those ions are not possible with the 9-fluorenol structure.
Again, this is a research compound, and has not been through human trials. But the parent compound fluorene, is a hydrocarbon used in a lot of different things. Some of those compounds created by it are going to be toxic. That does not mean any compound with a fluorene base will be, though.