Purine nucleotides derivatives

Several other purine nucleotide derivatives with alkyl halide substituents have appeared in the literature, including adenosine S -chloromethane phosphonate, adenosine 5 -chloromethylpyrophosphate, and adenosine 5 -()8-bromoethane phosphonate) (287-291). These compounds have been evaluated as affinity labels of such nucleotide-binding enzymes as leucyl- and tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetases (leucine- and tryptophan-tRNA ligases), phosphorylase b, and cAMP-... 

Uric acid that is produced in man is essentially the product of the action of the enzyme xanthine oxidase on xanthine and hypoxanthine. A tiny amount of uric acid may be ingested as part of the diet, but the great bulk is the result of the action of this enzyme on these two purines. These purines are themselves produced either as a result of the breakdown of cellular material in toto, the turnover of nucleic acids in the cells, or as a result of the intermediary metabolism of various purine nucleotide derivatives. These latter compounds are active in the flow of energy, in methyl group transfer reactions, and as part of the functional molecule of many vitamins. There is direct and indirect evidence that some of the uric acid derives from all these sources. Essentially this evidence consists of the demonstration that other parts of the nucleie acids are found in the urine, such as pyrimidine breakdown products (P9) and methylated purines, which are found only in nucleic acids. There is also isotopic evidence that some labeled purines appear in the urine too quickly after administration of radioactive precursors... 

Since biosynthesis of IMP consumes glycine, glutamine, tetrahydrofolate derivatives, aspartate, and ATP, it is advantageous to regulate purine biosynthesis. The major determinant of the rate of de novo purine nucleotide biosynthesis is the concentration of PRPP, whose pool size depends on its rates of synthesis, utilization, and degradation. The rate of PRPP synthesis depends on the availabihty of ribose 5-phosphate and on the activity of PRPP synthase, an enzyme sensitive to feedback inhibition by AMP, ADP, GMP, and GDP. 

The effect of 6-mercaptopurine on the incorporation of a number of C-labelled compounds into soluble purine nucleotides and into RNA and DNA has been studied in leukemia L1210, Ehrlich ascites carcinoma, and solid sarcoma 180. At a level of 6-mercaptopurine that markedly inhibited the incorporation of formate and glycine, the utilization of adenine or 2-aminoadenine was not affected. There was no inhibition of the incorporation of 5(or 4)-aminoimidazole-4(5)-carboxamide (AIC) into adenine derivatives and no marked or consistent inhibition of its incorporation into guanine derivatives. The conversion of AIC to purines in ascites cells was not inhibited at levels of 6-mercaptopurine 8-20 times those that produced 50 per cent or greater inhibition of de novo synthesis [292]. Furthermore, AIC reverses the inhibition of growth of S180 cells (AH/5) in culture by 6-mercaptopurine [293]. These results suggest that in all these systems, in vitro and in vivo, the principal site at which 6-mercaptopurine inhibits nucleic acid biosynthesis is prior to the formation of AIC, and that the interconversion of purine ribonucleotides (see below) is not the primary site of action [292]. Presumably, this early step is the conversion of PRPP to 5-phosphoribosylamine inhibited allosterically by 6-mercaptopurine ribonucleotide (feedback inhibition is not observed in cells that cannot convert 6-mercaptopurine to its ribonucleotide [244]. 

B. Purine nucleotides can be synthesized de novo from amphibolic or dual-purpose intermediates, which may be derived either from anabolic or catabolic pathways. 

Nucleotides and nucleosides have emerged as important molecules in medicinal chemistry. In the 1950s, Elion and Hitchings discovered that 6-mercaptopurine had antitumor properties. This pioneering discovery opened the door for many subsequent studies of nucleotide derivatives as therapeutics. Acyclovir (8.3), a nucleoside that lacks two carbon atoms of its ribose ring, is effective in the treatment of herpes infections. Allopurinol, a purine derivative, is useful in the treatment of gout. 

Aromatic compounds arise in several ways. The major mute utilized by autotrophic organisms for synthesis of the aromatic amino acids, quinones, and tocopherols is the shikimate pathway. As outlined here, it starts with the glycolysis intermediate phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) and erythrose 4-phosphate, a metabolite from the pentose phosphate pathway. Phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan are not only used for protein synthesis but are converted into a broad range of hormones, chromophores, alkaloids, and structural materials. In plants phenylalanine is deaminated to cinnamate which yields hundreds of secondary products. In another pathway ribose 5-phosphate is converted to pyrimidine and purine nucleotides and also to flavins, folates, molybdopterin, and many other pterin derivatives. 

Biosynthesis of UMP. The parts of the intermediates derived from aspartate are shown in red. Bold type indicates atoms derived from carbamoyl phosphate. In contrast to purine nucleotide synthesis, where ring formation starts on the sugar, in pyrimidine biosynthesis the pyrimidine ring is completed before being attached to the ribose. 

Cyclic nucleotides are purinic base derivatives with powerful biological activity. It is widely accepted that cyclic nucleotides mediate many of the intracellular biochemical events triggered by neurotransmitters and hormones (1,2). Therefore, the analysis of these compounds carries special relevance in biological sciences. A wide variety of techniques has been developed for cyclic nucleotide assays including binding to phosphokinase (3,4) or to antibodies (5) activation of enzymes... 

A new intermediate in purine nucleotide de novo biosynthesis in E. coli, namely 7V(5)-carboxy-aminoimidazole ribotide (35) has been identified together with two new enzymatic activities involving the carboxylation of the 5-amino group of 5-aminoimidazole ribotide (AIR) and the rearrangement of the /V-carboxy derivative to the C-carboxy derivative (CAIR) (Scheme 21) <94B2269>. 

B lymphocytes will be eliminated during continuous culture because these cells have a short life span in culture. Commercially available myeloma cells for hybridoma production have mutations in one of the enzymes of the salvage pathway of purine nucleotide biosynthesis. Hybridoma cells are cultured in medium that forces the cells to utilize the salvage pathway for nucleotide synthesis. The mutated myeloma cells or hybridization products of two myeloma cells will die in this selection medium since they are incapable of nucleotide synthesis under these propagation conditions. However, myeloma cells that have fused to the B lymphocytes derived from the spleen of the immunized animal will have an intact salvage pathway and will survive in the selection medium. Thus, only the B lymphocytes-myeloma hybridomas will survive prolonged culture in the selection medium. 

The salvage pathway does not involve the formation of new heterocyclic bases but permits variation according to demand of the state of the base (B), i.e. whether at the nucleoside (N), or nucleoside mono- (NMP), di- (NDP) or tri- (NTP) phosphate level. The major enzymes and routes available (Scheme 158) all operate with either ribose or 2-deoxyribose derivatives except for the phosphoribosyl transferases. Several enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of purine nucleotides or in interconversion reactions, e.g. adenosine deaminase, have been assayed using a method which is based on the formation of hydrogen peroxide with xanthine oxidase as a coupling enzyme (81CPB426). 

The nomenclature of nucleotides and their constituent units was presented earlier (Section 5.1.2). Recall that a nucleoside consists of a purine or pyrimidine base linked to a sugar and that a nucleotide is a phosphate ester of a nucleoside. The names of the major bases of RNA and DNA, and of their nucleoside and nucleotide derivatives, are... 

Free purine bases, derived from the turnover of nucleotides or from the diet, can be attached to PRPP to form purine nucleoside monophosphates, in a reaction analogous to the formation of orotidylate. Two salvage enzymes with different specificities recover purine bases. Adenine phosphorihosyltransferase catalyzes the formation of adenylate... 

Fig. 10.13. A sketch of the possible interactions of free fatty acids and their derivatives with brown fat mitochondria. The sketch illustrates some of the candidates for the mediator of thermogenesis (i.e., the substance or process that will activate thermogenin (alt. another site of the mitochondrial membrane) even in the presence of the inhibitory cytosohc nucleotides). Common for the candidates shown here is that they are formed subsequent to the activation of lipolysis of the stored triglycerides (TG) by norepinephrine (NE) via cAMP-dependent processes. The candidates illustrated are free fatty acids (FFA), interacting (1) with the purine-nucleotide binding site on thermogenin, (2) with another site on thermogenin, (3) with another protein than thermogenin, or (4) directly with the membrane, and the acyl-CoAs, interacting (5) specifically with the purine-nucleotide binding site on thermogenin, or (6) unspecifically with the membrane. For discussion, see Section 5.

Bis(hydroxymethyl)phosphonic acid esters that incorporated thymine were employed as a backbone to prepare short oligonucleotide chains. This chain was prepared by condensation of the bis(4,4 -dimethoxytrityl) protected phosphonic acid and iV or N -(2-hydroxyethyl)thymine in the presence of l-(2-mesitylenesul-fonyl)-3-nitro-l,2,4-triazole or by an Appel reaction with or N -(2-aminoethyl)thymine (89a-h). Selective removal of one DMT-group and phos-phitylation yielded the building blocks for solid supported synthesis of the short oligomers by the phosphoramidite approach. Holy has reported the synthesis of 8-amino and 8-substituted amino derivatives of acyclic purine nucleotide analogues. The 8-amino, 8-methylamino- and 8-dimethylamino-adenine and -guanine analogues of iV-(2-phosphonomethoxyethyl) and (S)-iV-(3-hydroxy-2-phosphono-methoxy-propyl) derivatives of purines (90a-i), were prepared by... 

Fig. 1 Degradation of purine nucleotides and formation of purine derivatives.

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