Folic acid synthesis inhibitors

Folic acid synthesis inhibitors Sulfonamides Trimethoprim... 

The suifones are structural analogues of PABA and are competitive inhibitors of folic acid synthesis. Suifones are bacteriostatic and are used only in the treatment of... 

Chloroguanide hydrochloride (Paludrine) is activated to a triazine metabolite, cycloguanil, which also interferes with parasite folic acid synthesis. It is a dihydrofolate reductase inhibitor that is used for the prophylaxis of malaria caused by all susceptible strains of plasmodia. Chloroguanide is rapidly absorbed from the gas-... 

A closer look at these events reveals that bacteria synthesize folic acid using several enzymes, including one called dihydropteroate synthetase, which catalyzes the attachment of p-aminobenzoic acid to a pteridine ring system. When sulfanilamide is present it competes with the p-amino-benzoic acid (note the structural similarity) for the active site on the enzyme. This activity makes it a competitive inhibitor. Once this site is occupied on the enzyme, folic acid synthesis stops and bacterial growth stops. Folic acid can also be synthesized in the laboratory. ... 

Co-trimoxazole is a mixture of sulphamethoxazole (five parts) and trimethoprim (one part). The reason for using this combination is based upon the in vitro finding that there is a sequential blockade of folic acid synthesis, in which the sulphonamide is a competitive inhibitor of dihydropteroate synthetase and trimethoprim inhibits DHFR (see Chapter 12). The optimum ratio of the two components may not... 

INHIBITORS OF FOLIC ACID SYNTHESIS AND NUCLEIC ACID METABOLISM... 

Sulfonamides The sulfonamides are bacteriostatic inhibitors of folic acid synthesis. As antimetabolites of PABA, they are competitive inhibitors of dihydropteroate synthase (Figure 46-1). They can also act as substrates for this enzyme, resulting in the synthesis of nonfunctional forms of foUc acid. The selective toxicity of sulfonamides results from the inability of mammalian cells to synthesize folic acid they must use preformed folic acid that is present in the diet. 

In humans, folic add avitaminosis is more often caused by faulty uptake and/or utilization, than by dietary deficiency. It usually results in blood ab-normtilities, e.g. megablastic anemia and thrombocytopenia. Antimetabolites of folic acid are aminop-terin and methopterin, which are used therapeutically in the treatment of leukemia. The sulfonamides are antimetabolites of p-aminobenzoic acid, and therefore act as inhibitors of bacterial folic acid synthesis. 

Donald Woods discovered that sulphonamides exerted their action by inhibiting an enzyme used by bacteria to synthesise folic acid. The compound 4-aminobenzoic acid is the precursor for folic acid, and is structurally similar to sulphonamide. Bacteria that were unable to synthesise folic acid were unable to achieve de novo synthesis of purines for their DNA and RNA synthesis and hence could not proliferate. Such competitive inhibitors, which mimicked normal metabolites, became known as antimetabolites (many are used in cancer chemotherapy. Chapter 21). 

Dihydrofolate reductase acts as an auxiliary enzyme for thymidylate synthase. It is involved in the regeneration of the coenzyme N, N -methylene-THF, initially reducing DHF to THF with NADPH as the reductant (see p. 418). The folic acid analogue methotrexate, a frequently used cytostatic agent, is an extremely effective competitive inhibitor of dihydrofolate reductase. It leads to the depletion of N, N -methylene-THF in the cells and thus to cessation of DNA synthesis. 

New derivatives of 4-amino and 2,4-diaminopteridines have been synthesized and their capability to inhibit neuronal nitric oxide synthase evaluated <99JMC4108>. The synthesis of folic acid multiply labeled with stable isotopes, for bioavailability studies in human nutrition, has been reported <99JCS(P1)1311>, Synthesis and antiviral evaluation of several 6-(methylenecarbomethoxy)pteridine-4,7-diones have been described <99JHC435>. Synthesis and biochemical evaluation of bis(6,7-dimethyl-8-D-ribityllumazines) as potential bisubstrate analog inhibitors of riboflavin synthase have been reported <99JOC4635>. Synthesis and cyclization of novel lumazine-enediyne chimeras have been reported <99H13>. 

Another group of inhibitors prevents nucleotide biosynthesis indirectly by depleting the level of intracellular tetrahydrofolate derivatives. Sulfonamides are structural analogs of p-aminobenzoic acid (fig. 23.19), and they competitively inhibit the bacterial biosynthesis of folic acid at a step in which p-aminobenzoic acid is incorporated into folic acid. Sulfonamides are widely used in medicine because they inhibit growth of many bacteria. When cultures of susceptible bacteria are treated with sulfonamides, they accumulate 4-carboxamide-5-aminoimidazole in the medium, because of a lack of 10-formyltetrahydrofolate for the penultimate step in the pathway to IMP (see fig. 23.10). Methotrexate, and a number of related compounds inhibit the reduction of dihydrofolate to tetrahydrofolate, a reaction catalyzed by dihydrofolate reductase. These inhibitors are structural analogs of folic acid (see fig. 23.19) and bind at the catalytic site of dihydrofolate reductase, an enzyme catalyzing one of the steps in the cycle of reactions involved in thymidylate synthesis (see fig. 23.16). These inhibitors therefore prevent synthesis of thymidylate in replicating... 

Animals are unable to synthesize folic acid (6.62) and must consume adequate quantities in their diets. Plants and bacteria, however, are able to make folic acid. The first step of this synthesis is catalyzed by dihydropteroate synthetase and reacts dihydroptero-ate diphosphate (6.69) and para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA, 6.70) (Figure 6.25). Because this pathway is not found in humans, inhibition of the reaction is a method to ultimately stop TMP synthesis in an invading bacterium while not impacting the infected host. The sulfonamides, often called sulfa drugs, are a class of antibiotic that exploits the folic acid pathway and inhibits dihydropteroate synthetase. Sulfa drugs bind in the same fashion as PABA and act as competitive inhibitors. The active form of the first sulfa drug is sulfanilamide (6.71). Sulfamethoxazole (6.72) is a sulfa drug that is widely prescribed today.26... 

Aminopterin and amethopterin are 4-amino analogues of folic acid (Fig. 11.5) and as such are potent inhibitors of the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase (EC 1.5.1.3) (Blakley, 1969). This enzyme catalyses the reduction of folic acid and dihydrofolic acid to tetrahy-drofolic acid which is the level of reduction of the active coenzyme involved in many different aspects of single carbon transfer. As is clear from Fig. 11.6, tetrahydrofolate is involved in the metabolism of (a) the amino acids glycine and methionine (b) the carbon atoms at positions 2 and 8 of the purine ring (c) the methyl group of thymidine and (d) indirectly in the synthesis of choline and histidine. 

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