Thymine, reversible

Much of the photoinactivation of DNA involves dimerization between adjacent thymines. Reversal of this reaction can be effected by direct ultraviolet irradiation or sensitized by various enzymes. Lamola has shown that thymine dimer can be split by triplet energy transfer from various sensitizers.485... 

Sulphonamides are structural analogues of PABA. They competitively inhibit the incorporation of PABA into dihydropteroic acid and there is some evidence for their incorporation into false folate analogues which inhibit subsequent metabolism. The presence of excess PABA will reverse the inhibitory action of sulphonamides, as will thymine, adenine, guanine and methionine. However, these nutrients are not normally available at the site of infections for which the sulphonamides are used. 

The identification of the HIV-1-specific non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) as a separate class of HIV inhibitors was heralded by the discovery of the tetrahydroimidazo[4,5,1 -// .][ 1,4]benzo-diazepin-2(l //)-onc and -thione (TIBO) derivatives (Fig. 7) [58,59] and 1 -(2-hydroxyethoxymethyl)-6-(phenylthio)thymine (HEPT) derivatives (Fig. 8) [60,61]. The first TIBO derivatives (R82150, R82913) were the first NNRTIs [58] postulated to act as inhibitors of HIV-1 RT [59], For the HEPT derivatives it became evident that they also interact specifically with HIV-1 RT after a number of derivatives (i.e., E-EPU, E-EBU, and E-EBU-dM) had been synthesized that were more active than HEPT itself [62,63]. Following HEPT and TIBO, several other compounds, i.e., nevirapine, pyridinone, and bis(heteroaryl)piperazine (BHAP), were... 

This reaction has also been shown to occur in cytidine, cytidylic acid, uracil, uridine, and uridylic acid (found in RNA) but reportedly not in thymine, thymidine, or thymidylic acid/55 The photohydration has been found to be partially reversible, dehydration being nearly complete at extremes of temperature and pH. 

There is always interest in the photochemistry of the pyrimidine nucleic acid bases and related simple pyrimidinones, due to its importance in genetic mutation. In addition to damaging DNA, photo-induced reactions may also repair the damage, as in the reduction, by FADH, of the thymine glycol 64 back to thymine <06JACS10934>. Another report related to repair of DNA involved a model study, by means of the linked dimer 65, of the involvement of tryptophan in the electron-transfer leading to reversion of thymine oxetane adducts <06OBC291>. 

A computational study was concerned with the effect of solvation on the radical ion involved in CDP photolyase enzyme-catalysed reversion of thymine and uracil cyclobutane dimers stimulated by visible light <06T6490>. 

These substances are analogues of thymine (azidothymidine, stavudine), adenine (didanosine), cytosine (lami-vudine, zaldtabine), and guanine (car-bovir, a metabolite of abacavir). They have in common an abnormal sugar moiety. Like the natural nucleosides, they undergo triphosphorylation, giving rise to nucleotides that both inhibit reverse transcriptase and cause strand breakage following incorporation into viral DNA. 

An efficient synthesis of the l-aUyl-6-(l, 2, 3 -triazolyl) analogue 170 of 1-[2-hydroxyethoxy)methyl]-6-(phenylthio)thymine (KEPT), an anti-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) reverse transcriptase inhibitor, was reported using an intermolecular 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of the azide 169 with acetylenes (35) (Scheme 9.35). Azidouracil (169), when refluxed with an acetylene in equimolar proportions in toluene, gave the corresponding triazoles (170) in excellent yield. 

The dimer has also been isolated from photolysis of dried uracil deposits on filter paper,33 and its elementary composition and molecular weight determined. It has an ultraviolet spectrum similar to that of thymine dimer (15). Uracil can be recovered by photolysis of the dimer in solution at 240 nm, but only to the extent of 75%. The photoreversal of dimer in solution gives, in part, the photohydrate.33 The thermal reversibility of the photolyzed aqueous solution ranges from 17 to 44% recovery of absorbance. 

The existence of photoreversible, but not of heat-reversible, absorbance change in irradiated poly dI dC was taken to prove that the photoproducts are entirely dimers (in contrast to those in poly C irradiations where the product is almost entirely the hydrate82a). It was possible to detect dimers of uracil as well as those of cytosine, by means of the much slower photoreversal of uracil dimers. In the acid hydrolysates of irradiated dl-dC, both uracil dimers and uracil could be identified. Enzymatic hydrolysis (snake venom phosphodiesterase) does not split pyrimidine dimers, and the products of such hydrolysis of irradiated tritium-labeled poly dl dC contained trinucleotides shown by radioactivity to contain cytosine dimers. Thymine dimers were formed in the photolysis of the poly dA dT, and were detected and assayed by the same methods. The yield of thymine dimers in irradiated poly... 

An unusual photochemical reaction of 2-pyridones, 2-aminopyridinium salts and pyran-2-ones is photodimerization to give the so-called butterfly dimers. These transformations are outlined in equations (13) and (14). Photodimerization by [2+2] cyclization is also a common and important reaction with these compounds. It has been the subject of particular study in pyrimidines, especially thymine, as irradiation of nucleic acids at ca. 260 nm effects photodimerization (e.g. equation 15) this in turn changes the regular hydrogen bonding pattern between bases on two chains and hence part of the double helix structure is disrupted. The dimerization is reversed if the DNA binds to an enzyme and this enzyme-DNA complex is irradiated at 300-500 nm. Many other examples of [2+2] photodimerization are known and it has recently been shown that 1,4-dithiin behaves similarly (equation 16) (82TL2651). 

RNA to initiate cDNA synthesis. All cellular mRNA contains multiple repeats of adenine bases (poly-A tails). Therefore the complementary thymine bases (oligo-dT) can be used as a primer that binds to the mRNA template required for the reverse transcriptase to synthesize the cDNA. In the case of pancreatic mRNAs (Figure 4.2), the signihcantly higher mRNA for insulin compared with other proteins allowed success in isolating the insulin-specihc cDNA. Subsequent insertion of cDNA into a bacterial expression vector allowed the production of functional insulin that is now marketed as a successful therapeutic product (Figure 4.2). 

ESR experiments at low temperatures with frozen aqueous solutions of DNA indicate electrons are trapped on cytosine (C, 50-85%) with the remainder on thymine (T) [6, 9,13]. After the initial electron attachment, electron migration is temporarily quenched at low temperatures. The reversible protonation of the cytosine anion, C at N3 to form the neutral species, C(N3)H is suggested to further stabilize this species (Scheme 1). Much experimental... 

A third alternative starts with an extract of RNA, not DNA. Mature eukaryotic mRNA contains a long run or tail of adenine residues at its 3 end. The poly(rA) tail can be hybridized with an oligomer of thymine residues, and the oligo(dT) can then be used as a primer for a particular kind of DNA polymerase known as reverse transcriptase. This enzyme, a polymerase associated with retroviruses, will use RNA as a template to make a complementary DNA copy of the RNA, creating a DNA-RNA double-stranded hybrid. In another round of synthesis, the enzyme can replace the RNA strand entirely with DNA, so that the RNA-DNA hybrid is completely converted to double-stranded DNA containing an exact copy of the original RNA sequence. This DNA molecule is known as cDNA because it has a strand that is complementary to (or a copy of) the original RNA. 

The activity of dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase can be measured in peripheral blood mononuclear cells, fibroblasts, and liver using radiolabeled thymine followed by separation of radiolabeled thymine and the radiolabeled reaction products with reverse-phase HPLC combined with online detection of the radioactivity [12]. 

The activity thymidine phosphorylase can be detected in leukocytes using a non-radiochemical assay in which thymine is detected at 265 nm after separation with reverse-phase HPLC [9]. 

Just as orotic acid is converted to a ribonucleotide in step e of Fig. 25-14, other free pyrimidine and purine bases can react with PRPP to give monoribonucleotides plus PP . The reversible reactions, which are catalyzed by phosphoribosyltransferases (ribonucleotide pyrophosphorylases), are important components of the salvage pathways by which purine and pyrimidine bases freed by the degradation of nucleic acids are recycled.273 However, thymine is usually not reused. Thymine will react with deoxribose 1-P to form thymidine plus inorganic phosphate (thymidine phosphorylase), and thymidine is rapidly... 

The action of venom exonuclease is also blocked by thymine dimers produced as a result of UV irradiation of DNA at 280 nm. Setlow et al. (66) subjected irradiated DNA to exhaustive digestion by venom exonuclease. They isolated and identified the products of the reaction, which were composed of large amounts of all four 5 -mononucleotides and of small amounts of trinucleotides of the type d-pNpTpT where N was any of four common nucleosides and TpT was the irradiation-induced dimer of thymidine. These trinucleotides were totally resistant to further digestion with venom exonuclease but became partially susceptible after UV irradiation at 240 nm, known to reverse dimerization. The authors picture the action of venom exonuclease as proceeding linearly from the internal bond one base beyond the dimer. From there on conventional hydrolysis is resumed until the next block. This experiment touches upon one of the most pressing problems connected with venom exonuclease. Is the endonucleolytic activity an intrinsic property of the enzyme ... 

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