Cyclosaligenyl-2',3'-
didehydro-2',3'-dideoxythymidine Monophosphate: Efficient Intracellular Delivery of d4TMP Jan Balzarini1,
Cyclosaligenyl-2',3'-didehydro-2', 3'-dideoxythymidine-5'-monophosphate (cycloSal-d4TMP) is a potent and selective inhibitor of human immunodeficiency virus replication in cell culture and differs from other nucleotide prodrug approaches in that it is designed to selectively deliver the nucleotide 5'-monophosphate by a controlled, chemically induced hydrolysis. Its antiviral efficacy in cell culture is at least as good as, if not superior to, that of d4T.
D4TTP was preferentially incorporated into the T sites of the elongating DNA strand by HIV-RT and terminated DNA synthesis at the incorporation sites. The DNA chain termination activity of D4TTP was equipotent to that of AZTTP. In contrast, D4TTP was a poor substrate for pol alpha and pol epsilon. The analogue was incorporated into DNA by the human enzymes about 10,000- to 20,000-fold less efficiently than by HIV-RT, whereas the incorporation of AZTTP by pol alpha and pol epsilon was not detectable by the DNA primer extension assay. Pol epsilon, an enzyme with 3'----5'-exonuclease activity, was unable to remove the incorporated 2',3'-didehydro-2',3'-dideoxythymidine monophosphate.