N,O-diacyl-4-benzoyl-N-phenylhydroxylamines as photoinduced DNA cleaving agents.

Photoinduced homolytic fission of nitrogen-oxygen bond in N,O-diacyl-4-benzoyl-N-phenylhydroxylamines using 310 nm UV light for 10 min produced acylaminyl and acyloxy radicals, which resulted in single strand cleavage of DNA at pH 7.0. Further the DNA cleaving ability of N,O-diacyl-4-benzoyl-N-phenylhydroxylamines found to depend both on its concentration and acyl substituents.