The carbocyclic analogue of
5-nitro-2'-deoxyuridine (NO2dUrd), in which the
sugar moiety is replaced by a
cyclopentane ring and which was designated
C-NO2dUrd, has been evaluated for its
cytostatic, antimetabolic, and antitumor properties. The following findings are noted.
C-NO2dUrd is about 500- to 2000-fold less inhibitory to
tumor cell proliferation in vitro than NO2dUrd. Phosphorolysis of
C-NO2dUrd by rabbit
liver extracts was not observed under conditions where NO2dUrd was readily converted to
5-nitrouracil (NO2Ura). Also,
C-NO2dUrd is converted to its 5'-monophosphate (C-NO2dUMP) by dThd
kinase nearly as efficiently as the true
nucleoside NO2dUrd. This metabolic conversion is necessary for the inhibitory effect of
C-NO2dUrd on
tumor cell proliferation in cell culture. The principal target
enzyme for the
cytostatic action of
C-NO2dUrd is 2'-deoxythymidylate (
dTMP)
synthetase. C-NO2dUMP, the active metabolite of
C-NO2dUrd, has a much lower affinity for
dTMP synthetase than does NO2dUMP. This is the first demonstration of the interaction of a carbocyclic
pyrimidine nucleotide analogue with
dTMP synthetase. Neither NO2dUrd nor
C-NO2dUrd exerts any significant antitumor activity in mice bearing L1210 or
P388 leukemia; for NO2dUrd, this failure may be related to a rapid degradation to its inactive metabolite, NO2Ura; for
C-NO2dUrd, it is most likely due to a decreased affinity of C-NO2dUMP for its target
enzyme,
dTMP synthetase.