Mechlorethamine mechanism

Mechlorethamine spontaneously converts in the body to a reactive cytotoxic product.Mechlorethamine is transported into the cell, where the drug forms a reactive intermediate that alkylates the N7 nitrogen of a guanine residue in one or both strands of a DNA molecule This alkylation leads to cross-linkages between guanine residues in the DNA chains and/or depurination, thus facilitating DNA strand breakage. Alkylation can also cause miscoding mutations. Although alkylation can occur in both cycling and resting cells (and, therefore, is cell-cycle nonspecific), proliferating cells are more sensitive to the drug, especially those in the G1 and S phases.