Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:2.7.1.21 (thymidine kinase)
 7,561 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

It has been reported that thymidylate synthase (TS) is a component of a multienzyme complex associated with DNA replication based on observations that enzyme activity was decreased when cells were treated with various DNA synthesis inhibitors (Plucinski, T. M., Fager, R. S., and Reddy, G. P. V. (1990) Mol. Pharmacol. 38, 114-120). The veracity of the TS assay (known as the tritium release assay) employed in these experiments may be compromised, however, because it requires the S phase-specific enzyme thymidine kinase (TK) to phosphorylate the substrate [5-3H]dUrd. In our study, this problem was further illustrated as the phosphorylated products of [14C]dCyd and [6-3H]dUrd were simultaneously quantitated to determine the activities of TS, TK, and dCyd kinase in intact CCRF-CEM cells. TS and dCyd kinase were unaffected by aphidicolin, hydroxyurea, and 1-beta-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine, whereas TK was strongly inhibited by these agents. Elevation of the cellular dTTP pool that accompanied drug treatment was not the primary mechanism affecting TK activity because incubation of cells with dCyd elevated the dTTP pool to similar levels, but did not inhibit TK to the same extent as did the drugs. Furthermore, after cells were washed from aphidicolin, [6-3H]dCyd incorporation, which primarily labels dTMP in DNA, proceeded at a linear rate, whereas a lag period of 15 min was observed before [3H]dThd was incorporated at a linear rate. These results suggest that TK activity is affected by more than one mechanism in intact cells. Because the activities of dCyd kinase and dCMP deaminase do not fluctuate as much as that of TK in response to changes in DNA synthesis activity and cell cycle, dCyd incorporation appears to be a more reliable assay of TS in intact cells than does dUrd incorporation. Our findings also imply that [3H]dThd incorporation assays may overestimate inhibition of DNA synthesis.
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PMID:Regulation of thymidine kinase and thymidylate synthase in intact human lymphoblast CCRF-CEM cells. 822 47

As has been shown earlier by us, the metabolism of extracellular deoxycytidine (dCyd) is 2-3 times higher in follicular and in PNA+ cells than in other cells. Deoxycytidine kinase (dCK) is one of the most important target enzymes for anti-proliferative drugs such as arabinosile-cytosine (ara-C), 2-Cl-deoxyadenosine (CdA). Neither the dCK activity nor the polypeptide correlates with the S phase of the cells, as thymidine kinase (TK1) does in tonsils. The newly developed anti-leukemic drug CdA, and also BrdA, are also phosphorylated by dCK and both effectively inhibit the 3H-dThd incorporation into DNA in tonsillar lymphocytes. A new molecular mechanism has been developed for CdA; it inhibits the interconversion of dCyd into dThd nucleotides. Analysis of the pools after 3H-dCyd labeling showed a decrease of the dUMP labeling. The inhibition of dCMP deaminase by the corresponding monophosphates (Cl-dAMP) in the cells has been suggested. CdA cannot be deaminated by adenosine deaminase (ADA), thus providing a good tool to investigate the importance of that enzyme during differentiation of the lymphoid cells. Elucidation of the nucleoside metabolism during the normal differentiation process might be the only way to get information about the same pathways in malignant transformations, i.e., in leukemias.
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PMID:Human tonsillar lymphocytes as targets for immunosuppressive and anticancer drugs. 908 56

Enzymatic activity from tumor and adjacent normal tissue of 200 patients involving deoxycytidine kinase (dCK), uridine/cytidine kinase (U/CK), cytidine deaminase (CD) and deoxycytidylate deaminase (dCMPD) was quantified. Patients with brain (17), colon (24), and breast (30) tumors, 53, 67, and 73%, respectively, had an elevated T/N value (Specific Activity of tumor/ Specific Activity of normal tissue) involving dCK and dCMPD suggesting chemotherapy with 5-fluorodeoxycytidine (5-FdC) alone or in combination with thymidine plus deoxytetrahydrouridine, or with the radiosensitizer, 5-chlorodeoxycytidine (5-CldC) plus tetrahydrouridine (H4U). Among patients with colon (19) and pancreatic tumors (40), 53 and 68 %, respectively, displayed T/N values >4 for CD suggesting chemotherapy with 5-FdC, 4-N-methylamino-5-FdC, 5-trifluoromethyldeoxycytidine and radiosensitization with 5- CldC, 4-N-methylamino-5-CldC, 5-iododeoxycytidine and 5-bromodeoxycytidine. The percent of patients with tumors with a T/N value >4 for U/CK in lung (72), colon (23) and breast (28) was 47, 61 and 68, respectively, suggesting zebularine (plus thymidine) treatment for tumors involving gene silencing. Evidence is presented that the 4-N-alkylamino-dC substituted nucleosides and those with large 5-substitutions are activated only via CD to thymidine kinase (TK) using end-points of cytotoxicity and/or radiosensitization: H4U, the inhibitor of CD is an antagonist, cells with low CD or no TK are resistant to the analogs, the end points are indifferent to the dCK status of cells, they are poor substrates for dCK and good substrates for CD, whereas 5-FdC and 5-CldC are good substrates for both enzymes. The analogs present opportunities for Collateral Sensitivity for 5-azacytidine and gemcitabine resistant tumors.
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PMID:Enzyme-Driven Chemo-and Radiation-Therapy with 12 Pyrimidine Nucleoside Analogs Not Yet in the Clinic. 2774 48

Cytidine deaminase (CDA) is a pyrimidine salvage enzyme that catalyzes cytidine and deoxycytidine hydrolytic deamination to yield uridine and deoxyuridine. Here we report the biochemical characterization of Trypanosoma brucei CDA as an enzyme within the tetrameric class of the CDA family that efficiently deaminates cytidine, deoxycytidine, and the nucleoside analogue 5-methyl-2'-deoxycytidine. In line with previous studies, we show that RNA interference (RNAi)-mediated CDA depletion impairs T. brucei proliferation when grown in pyrimidine-deficient medium, while supplementation with thymidine or deoxyuridine restores growth, further underscoring the role of this enzyme in providing deoxyuridine for dUMP formation via thymidine kinase, the substrate required for de novo thymidylate biosynthesis. This observation contrasts with the existence in T. brucei of a dimeric deoxyuridine 5'-triphosphate nucleotidohydrolase (dUTPase), an essential enzyme that can produce dUMP via the hydrolysis of dUTP/dUDP. Thus, T. brucei dUTPase-null mutants are thymidine auxotrophs, suggesting that dUTPase might have a role in providing dUMP for thymidylate biosynthesis. We show that overexpression of human dCMP deaminase (DCTD), an enzyme that provides directly dUMP through dCMP deamination, does not reverse the lethal phenotype of dUTPase knockout cells, which further supports the notion that in T. brucei, CDA is uniquely involved in providing dUMP, while the main role of dUTPase would be the withdrawal of the excess of dUTP to avoid its incorporation into DNA. Furthermore, we report the mitochondrial localization of CDA, highlighting the importance of this organelle in pyrimidine metabolism.IMPORTANCE Cytidine deaminases (CDAs) catalyze the hydrolytic deamination of cytidine and deoxycytidine in the pyrimidine salvage pathway. In kinetoplastids, pyrimidine metabolism has been extensively studied as a source of potential drug targets, given the fact that many of the enzymes of the pathway are essential. Thymidylate (dTMP) synthesis in Trypanosoma brucei exhibits unique characteristics. Thus, it has been suggested that the production of dUMP, the substrate for dTMP formation, is solely dependent on cytidine deaminase and thymidine kinase. Here we characterize recombinant T. brucei CDA (TbCDA) and present evidence that indeed the alternative route for dUMP formation via deoxyuridine 5'-triphosphate nucleotidohydrolase does not have a prominent role in de novo dTMP formation. Furthermore, we provide a scheme for the compartmentalization of dTMP biosynthesis, taking into account the observation that CDA is located in the mitochondrion, together with available information on the intracellular localization of other enzymes involved in the dTTP biosynthetic pathway.
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PMID:Contribution of Cytidine Deaminase to Thymidylate Biosynthesis in Trypanosoma brucei: Intracellular Localization and Properties of the Enzyme. 3139 Dec 79


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