Deoxyribonucleotide synthesis thymidylate

Two reactions that are required to form the precursors of DNA are described in detail ribonucleotide reductase converts ribonucleotides to deoxyribonucleotides, and thymidylate synthase methylates dUMP to form dTMP. The authors present the mechanisms and cofactors of these enzymes and explain how some anticancer drugs and antibiotics function by inhibition of dTMP synthesis and thus the growth of cells. Nucleotides also serve important roles as constituents of NAD", NADP, FAD, and coenzyme A (CoA), so the syntheses of these cofactors are described briefly. The chapter concludes with an explanation of how the purines are catabolized and some of the pathological conditions that arise from defects in the catabolic pathway of the purines. 

Figure 20.12 (a) Details of reaction catalysed by thymidylate synthase. Methylene FH4 represents N N methylene tetrahydro-folate (see Figure 15.2). (b) Reactions in the pathways in which either CDP or UDP gives rise to deoxythymidine monophosphate. Note that two processes can be involved in synthesis of deoxyuridine monophosphate. It is not known if one process dominates, but in (c) it is assumed that the pathway from CDP dominates formation of dTTP. (c) k summary of the reactions required for synthesis of deoxyribonucleotides required for DNA replication. 

Many of the enzymes participating in de novo synthesis of deoxyribonucleotide triphosphates, as well as those responsible for interconversion of deoxyribonucleotides, increase in activity when cells prepare for DNA synthesis. The need for increased DNA synthesis occurs under three circumstances (1) when the cell proceeds from the G0, or resting, stage of the cell cycle to the S, or synthetic or replication, stage (fig. 23.26) (2) when it performs repair after extensive DNA damage and (3) after infection of quiescent cells with virus. When cells leave G0, for example, enzymes such as thymidylate synthase and ribonucleotide reductase, increase as well as the corresponding mRNAs. These increases in enzyme amount supplement allosteric controls that increase the activity of each enzyme molecule. Corresponding decreases in amounts of these enzymes and their mRNAs occur when DNA synthesis is completed. 

The synthesis of deoxyuridine, cytidine, deoxycytidine and thymidine nucleotides from UMP (Fig. 6.13) involves three reactions CTP synthetase, ribonucleotide reductase, and thymidylate synthase (80). The first enzyme converts UTP into CTP and the second catalyzes the conversion of CDP, UDP, ADP and GDP into their respective deoxyribonucleotides. The last enzyme, thymidylate synthase, catalyzes the reductive methylation of deoxyUMP at the C-5 position giving deoxyTMP. The human enzyme has been extensively studied as it is a target enzyme in cancer chemotherapy. Besides these three enzymes, two other enzymes are involved in pyrimidine nucleotide synthesis and interconversion. DeoxyCMP deaminase converts deoxyCMP into deoxyUMP and deoxyUTP triphosphatase converts deoxyUTP into deoxyUMP. Giardia lamblia, and Trichomonas vaginalis lack both ribonucleotide reductase and thymidylate synthase and... 

Thymidylate synthase belongs to a class of enzymes required for DNA replication, and its activity is higher in rapidly proliferating cells. In particular, thymidylate synthase is responsible for methylation of deoxyuridine monophosphate (dUMP, 21) to deoxythymidine monophosphate (dTMP, 22) with the use of 5,10-methylenetet-rahydrofolate (23) as a cofactor (Scheme 2) [12], With fluorodeoxyuridine monophosphate, a slowly-reversible ternary complex 24 is formed instead. Inhibition of thymidylate synthase leads to deoxyribonucleotide imbalance, and hence to interference with DNA synthesis and repair. Alternative mechanism of DNA-directed Fluorouracil effect is misincorporation of fluorodeoxyuridine triphosphate (20) into DNA. Analogously, fluorouridine triphosphate (17) is extensively incorporated into different RNA species, disrapting their normal processing and function [7,8,11]. 

---