Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:2.7.7.49 (reverse transcriptase)
 31,746 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

2',3'-Dideoxyuridine (ddU) is ineffective at controlling human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection in human T cells, because it is not biotransformed to the active 5'-triphosphate. The metabolic block resides in the poor substrate affinity of ddU for cellular nucleoside kinases. This problem cannot be overcome by supplying the preformed nucleotides, because such compounds are unable to penetrate cells. To circumvent the requirement of ddU for enzymic phosphorylation, we have prepared bis(pivaloyloxymethyl) 2',3'-dideoxyuridine 5'-monophosphate (piv2 ddUMP), as a potential membrane-permeable prodrug of ddUMP, and investigated its metabolism and anti-HIV activity in two human T cell lines, one with wild-type thymidine kinase activity (MT-4) and the other deficient in thymidine kinase activity (CEM-tk-). The 5'-mono-, di-, and triphosphates of ddU were formed in both cell lines after exposure to piv2-ddUMP. In contrast, phosphorylated metabolites were not observed in cells treated with ddU or ddUMP alone. piv2-ddUMP also reduced the cytopathic effects of HIV-1 in MT-4 cells (ED50, 4.75 microM) and inhibited virus production in culture fluid (ED50, 20 microM). In addition, piv2-ddUMP protected CEM-tk- cells from HIV-1 infection, as demonstrated by inhibition of intracellular p24 antigen levels (ED50, 3 microM) and reverse transcriptase activity in culture medium (Ed50, 2.5 microM). Based on these findings, we propose that the "masked nucleotide" strategy may make available for development nucleoside analogues hitherto considered inactive because of failure to undergo biotransformation to the corresponding 5'-monophosphates. Moreover, by circumventing metabolic dependency on nucleoside kinases, the strategy may overcome acquired resistance to nucleoside analogues caused by the loss or depletion of nucleoside kinases.
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PMID:Membrane-permeable dideoxyuridine 5'-monophosphate analogue inhibits human immunodeficiency virus infection. 137 82

2',3'-Dideoxyuridine (ddUrd) exhibits poor if any anti-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) activity in ATH8 and MT-4 cells. This is in agreement with the failure of ddUrd to be efficiently anabolized intracellularly to its 5'-triphosphate metabolite. However, 2',3'-dideoxyuridine-5'-triphosphate (ddUTP) proved to be a potent and selective inhibitor of the reverse transcriptase of HIV (Ki, 0.05 microM) and avian myeloblastosis virus (Ki, 1.0 microM). Bacterial DNA polymerase I, mammalian DNA polymerase alpha, terminal deoxyribonucleotidyl transferase, and Moloney murine leukemia virus reverse transcriptase were resistant to ddUTP. ddUTP is incorporated into the growing DNA chain principally at dTTP sites and inhibits further elongation. The potential of ddUTP as an anti-HIV therapeutic agent merits further investigation. However, to achieve this goal, it will be necessary to resort to techniques capable of delivering preformed phosphorylated ddUrd to the susceptible cells.
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PMID:Potent DNA chain termination activity and selective inhibition of human immunodeficiency virus reverse transcriptase by 2',3'-dideoxyuridine-5'-triphosphate. 168 52