Thymidine synthesis

Pyrimidines, or antimetabolites (Flucytosine) Pyrimidines block thymidine synthesis in susceptible fiuigi, impairing DNA synthesis. Pyrimidines are fungistatic, and resistance can develop during treatment. 

Concanavalin A can be added to the medium to increase the mitotic activity (Davisson and Akeson, 1987), methotrexate, an inhibitor of thymidine synthesis, can be used to promote synchronization of the culture (Lee et al., 1990) and colcemid to increase the number of metaphase chromosomes (Table 11.3B). 

HAT Selection - The compounds hypoxanthine, aminopterin (see here), and thymidine (H,A, and T, respectively) can be used to select for cells having functional salvage pathways. Aminopterin inhibits dihydrofolate reductase, which blocks de novo purine and thymidine synthesis. Only cells which can utilize thymidine (pyrimidine salvage) and hypoxanthine (purine salvage) can grow in this medium. 

TABLE 5. Tests for Inhibition of Thymidine Synthesis by Antimalarials. 

Folate metabolism is not limited to the cytoplasmic compartment. Most of the folate in tissues is found in the mitochondrion and cytosol (Horne et al. 1997). Individual folate-dependent pathways are compartmentalized within organelles. The cytoplasmic and mitochondrial compartments each possess a parallel array of enzymes catalysing the interconversion of folate coenzymes that carry one-carbon units. The mitochondrial folate metabolism favours incorporation of one-carbon groups from serine and release of formate, while the cytoplasmic metabolism favours incorporation of one-carbon units from formate with purine and thymidine synthesis and homocysteine remethylation. 

An improved synthesis of chiral carbocyclic 2 -deoxyadenosine proceeds along similar lines to the carbocyclic thymidine synthesis described by the same group in Vol 21 (p.212).H3... 

The known role of vitamin B12 and folic acid in the formation of labile methyl groups (339) helps to explain the replaceability of folic acid (330) or vitamin B12 (331) by thymidine in certain deficient oi anisms. Also of interest is the role of folic acid compounds in the pathway leading to formation of the thymine methyl group. Low concentrations of a folic acid antimetabolite, aminopterin, blocked the utilization of deoxyiuidine for thymidine synthesis (333). The antimetabolite effects of aminopterin on the utilization of one-carbon donors have been known for some time (333, 334). The details of thymine biosynthetis will be discassed elsewhere in this volume (Chapter 24). 

MIX inhibits the immune response to Insulin. The suppression is reversed by folinic acid, 7 Vitamin B12 promotes DNA-thymidine synthesis in C3H mouse cells by raising the level of folate coenzymes.43... 

C.W. Greengrass, D.W.T. Hoople, S.D.A. Street, F. Hamilton, M.S. Marriot, J. Bordner, A.G. Dalgleish, H. Mitsuya, and S. Broder, l-(3-Cyano-2,3-dideoxy-P-, D-e/yr/iro-pentofuranosyl)thymidine Synthesis and antiviral evaluation against human immunodeficiency virus, J. Med. Chem. 32 618 (1989). 

With the aid of cytosine permease, flucytosine reaches the fungal cell where it is converted by cytosine deaminase into 5-fluorouracil [51-21-8]. Cytosine deaminase is not present in the host, which explains the low toxicity of 5-FC. 5-Fluorouracil is then phosphorylated and incorporated into RNA and may also be converted into 5-fluorodeoxyuridine monophosphate, which is a potent and specific inhibitor of thymidylate synthetase. As a result, no more thymidine nucleotides are formed, which in turn leads to a disturbance of the DNA-synthesis. These effects produce an inhibition of the protein synthesis and cell repHcation (1,23,24). 5-Fluorouracil caimot be used as an antimycotic. It is poorly absorbed by the fungus to begin with and is also toxic for mammalian cells. 

Methotrexate (MTX, chemical structure shown in Fig. 1.) competitively inhibits the dehyrofolate reductase, an enzyme that plays an essential role in purine synthesis. The dehydrofolate reductase regenerates reduced folates when thymidine monophosphate is formed from deoxyuridine monophosphate. Without reduced folates cells are unable to synthesize thymine. Administration of N-5 tetrahydrofolate or N-5 formyl-tetrahydrofolate (folinic acid) can bypass this block and rescue cells from methotrexate activity by serving as antidote. 

Methotrexate belongs to the class of antimetabolites. As a derivative of folic acid it inhibits the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase resulting in a decreased production of thymidine and purine bases essential for RNA and DNA synthesis. This interruption of the cellular metabolism and mitosis leads to cell death. 

Prusoff WH (1959) Synthesis and biological activities of iododeoxyuridine, an analog of thymidine, Biochim Biophys Acta 32 295-296... 

Deoxy-3 -fluorothymidine (813), a selective inhibitor of DNA synthesis, was prepared " in moderate yields from 3 -0-mesyl- or 3, 5 -di-O-mesyl-thymidine, through 2,3 -anhydro-1 -(2-deoxy- -D-t/2reopentofur-anosyl)thymine (808), by treatment with hydrogen fluoride (0.1% HF in l,4-dioxane-AlF3, 3.764 hf in DMF-AlFj, or 10% HF in DMF ),... 

Deoxy-5 -fluorothymidine (838) was prepared by Langen and Kowol-jj. 796,797 fpQjyj 5 -0-tosyl precursor by treatment with fluoride. Compound 838 cannot be phosphorylated enzymically owing to the lack of OH-5, but it inhibits the growth of carcinoma cells. This was explained as follows the thymidine 5 -monophosphate (thymidylate) kinase in carcinoma cells, catalyzing the transformation of thymidine 5 -monophosphate into the diphosphate, is inhibited by 838, thus preventing the synthesis of... 

Human tissues can synthesize purines and pyrimidines from amphibolic intermediates. Ingested nucleic acids and nucleotides, which therefore are dietarily nonessential, are degraded in the intestinal tract to mononucleotides, which may be absorbed or converted to purine and pyrimidine bases. The purine bases are then oxidized to uric acid, which may be absorbed and excreted in the urine. While little or no dietary purine or pyrimidine is incorporated into tissue nucleic acids, injected compounds are incorporated. The incorporation of injected [ H] thymidine into newly synthesized DNA thus is used to measure the rate of DNA synthesis. 

While mammahan cells reutilize few free pyrimidines, salvage reactions convert the ribonucleosides uridine and cytidine and the deoxyribonucleosides thymidine and deoxycytidine to their respective nucleotides. ATP-dependent phosphoryltransferases (kinases) catalyze the phosphorylation of the nucleoside diphosphates 2 "-de-oxycytidine, 2 -deoxyguanosine, and 2 -deoxyadenosine to their corresponding nucleoside triphosphates. In addition, orotate phosphoribosyltransferase (reaction 5, Figure 34-7), an enzyme of pyrimidine nucleotide synthesis, salvages orotic acid by converting it to orotidine monophosphate (OMP). 

The regions of the tRNA molecule teferred to in Chapter 35 (and illustrated in Figure 35-11) now become important. The thymidine-pseudouridine-cyti-dine (T PC) arm is involved in binding of the amino-acyl-tRNA to the ribosomal surface at the site of protein synthesis. The D arm is one of the sites important for the proper recognition of a given tRNA species by its proper aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase. The acceptor arm, located at the 3 -hydroxyl adenosyl terminal, is the site of attachment of the specific amino acid. 

The methylation of deoxyuridine monophosphate (dUMP) to thymidine monophosphate (TMP), catalyzed by thymidylate synthase, is essential for the synthesis of DNA. The one-carbon fragment of methy-lene-tetrahydrofolate is reduced to a methyl group with release of dihydrofolate, which is then reduced back to tetrahydrofolate by dihydrofolate reductase. Thymidylate synthase and dihydrofolate reductase are especially active in tissues with a high rate of cell division. Methotrexate, an analog of 10-methyl-tetrahydrofolate, inhibits dihydrofolate reductase and has been exploited as an anticancer drug. The dihydrofolate reductases of some bacteria and parasites differ from the human enzyme inhibitors of these enzymes can be used as antibacterial drugs, eg, trimethoprim, and anti-malarial drugs, eg, pyrimethamine. 

Deficiency of fohc acid itself—or deficiency of vitamin Bi2, which leads to functional fohc acid deficiency—affects cells that are dividing rapidly because they have a large requirement for thymidine for DNA synthesis. ChnicaUy, this affects the bone marrow, leading to megaloblastic anemia. 

---