Deoxyguanosine-resistant leukemia L1210 cells. Loss of specific deoxyribonucleoside kinase activity

A Proteome Strategy for Fractionating Proteins and Peptides Using Continuous Free-Flow Electrophoresis Coupled Off-Line to Reversed-Phase High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

Extensive prefractionation is now considered to be a necessary prerequisite for the comprehensive analysis of complex proteomes where the dynamic range of protein abundances can vary from approximately 10(6) for cells to approximately 10(10) for tissues such as blood. Here, we describe a high-resolution 2D protein separation system that uses a continuous free-flow electrophoresis (FFE) device to fractionate complex protein mixtures by solution-phase isoelectric focusing (IEF) into 96 well-defined pools, each separated by approximately 0.02-0.10 pH unit depending on the gradient created, followed by rapid (approximately 6 min per analysis) reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) of each FFE pool. Fractionated proteins are readily visualized in a virtual 2D format using software that plots protein loci, pI in the first dimension and relative hydrophobicity (i.e., RP-HPLC retention time) in the second dimension. By coupling a diode-array detector in line with a multiwavelength fluorescence detector, separated proteins can be monitored in the RP-HPLC eluent by both UV absorbance and intrinsic fluorescence simultaneously from a single experiment. Triplicate analyses of standard proteins using a pH 3-10 gradient conducted over a 3-day period revealed a high system reproducibility with a SD of 0.57 (0.05 pH unit) within the FFE pools and 0.003 (0.18 s) for protein retention times in the second-dimension RP-HPLC step. In addition, we demonstrate that the FFE-IEF/RP-HPLC separation strategy can also be applied to complex mixtures of low molecular weight compounds such as peptides. With the facile ability to measure the pH of the isoelectric focused pools, peptide pI values can be estimated and used to qualify peptide identifications made using either MS/MS sequencing approaches or pI discriminated peptide mass fingerprinting. The calculated peak capacity of this 2D liquid-based FFE-IEF/RP-HPLC system is 6720.

Mammalian deoxyribonucleoside kinases

The mammalian deoxyribonucleoside kinases are deoxycytidine kinase, thymidine kinase 1 and 2 and deoxyguanosine kinase. These enzymes phosphorylate deoxyribonucleosides and thereby provide an alternative to de novo synthesis of DNA precursors. Their activities are essential for the activation of several chemotherapeutically important nucleoside analogues. In recent years, these enzymes have been thoroughly characterised with regard to structure, substrate specificity and patterns of expression. In this review, these results are reviewed and furthermore, the physiologic metabolic role of the anabolic enzymes is discussed in relation to catabolic pathways. The significance of this information for the development of therapeutic protocols and choice of animal model systems is discussed. Finally, alternative pathways for nucleoside analogue phosphorylation are surveyed, such as the phosphotransfer capacity of 5'-nucleotidase.

Secondary loss of deoxyguanosine kinase activity in purine nucleoside phosphorylase deficient mice

The T-cell immunodeficiency associated with purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP) deficiency in man is believed to be due to the accumulation of dGTP which may be preferentially formed from deoxyguanosine in T-lymphocytes or their precursor cells. We found no evidence for dGTP accumulation in thymocytes or spleen leucocytes, < 1 nmol/10(9) cells, nor in erythrocytes, < 0.05 nmol/10(9) cells, of the B6-NPE- or B6-NPF PNP-deficient mice strains. There were no changes in purine or pyrimidine ribonucleotide pools. As these mice had been previously shown to excrete PNP nucleoside substrates, we examined the metabolism of deoxyguanosine. Deoxyguanosine kinase activity as compared to control mice was 6 to 52% for the B6-NPE mutant, 2 to 22% for the B6-NPF mutant. Fractionation of erythrocyte and liver lysates from the F mutation and the background strain, C57BL/6J, by anion exchange chromatography confirmed the secondary deficiency of deoxyguanosine kinase and demonstrated that this activity was distinct from adenosine kinase and two major peaks of deoxycytidine kinase activity. Mouse PNP, expressed and purified as a fusion protein, did not show evidence of being bifunctional and having deoxyguanosine kinase activity. Metabolic modelling revealed that the ratio of deoxyguanosine phosphorylation versus phosphorolysis was < 0.06 in control mice, and < or = 0.3 in lymphocytes of PNP-deficient mice. Were deoxyguanosine kinase not reduced in the PNP-deficient mice, all tissues of the B6-NPF mutant would preferentially phosphorylate deoxyguanosine at low substrate concentrations.

New targets for pyrimidine antimetabolites for the treatment of solid tumours. 2: Deoxycytidine kinase

Deoxycytidine kinase is an enzyme required for the activation of, for example, cytarabine, the most widely used agent for the chemotherapy of haematological malignancies. However, deoxycytidine kinase also plays an important role in the activation of several new agents used in the treatment of leukaemia, such as cladribine. Recently, a new cytidine analogue, gemcitabine, has shown impressive activity as a single agent against several solid malignancies (ovarian cancer, non-small cell lung cancer), demonstrating that in solid tumours deoxycytidine kinase can be an important target for the activation of antimetabolites. Studies on the regulation of deoxycytidine kinase have shown that the enzyme has a complicated regulation (feedback inhibition by the product and regulation by ribonucleotides). Modulation of deoxycytidine kinase activity has already been shown to be an effective way to improve the effect of cytarabine and will probably be a target for new therapies.

2'-Deoxy-2'-methylene derivatives of adenosine, guanosine, tubercidin, cytidine and uridine as inhibitors of L1210 cell growth in culture

The 2'-deoxy-2'-methylene derivatives of adenosine (MdAdo), guanosine (MdGuo), tubercidin (MdTu), cytidine (MdCyd) and uridine (MdUrd) were synthesized as mechanism-based inhibitors directed at ribonucleotide reductase. It was shown that MdCyd 5'-diphosphate irreversibly inactivated ribonucleotide reductase from Escherichia coli (Baker et al., J Med Chem 34: 1879-1884, 1991). In studies reported here, MdAdo/EHNA, MdGuo and MdCyd inhibited L1210 cell growth with IC50 values of 3.4, 10.6 and 1.4 microM, respectively. Since MdAdo is a substrate for adenosine deaminase, the presence of EHNA was required to give maximal growth inhibition. 8-Aminoguanosine was not required to maximize the cytotoxic effects of MdGuo. The 2'-deoxy-2'-methylene derivatives of tubercidin and uridine did not inhibit L1210 cell growth at concentrations as high as 50 microM (MdTu) or 100 microM (MdUrd). L1210 cell lines resistant to hydroxyurea (directed at the non-heme iron subunit of ribonucleotide reductase) or deoxyadenosine (directed at the effector binding subunit of ribonucleotide reductase) were not resistant to MdCyd. An L1210 cell line that was highly resistant to dGuo due to the loss of a relatively specific deoxyribonucleoside kinase (Cory et al., J Biol Chem 268: 405-409, 1993) had a 6.6-fold increase in the IC50 value toward MdCyd, but showed only a 2-fold increase in resistance to MdGuo. Another L1210 cell line that was markedly deficient in adenosine kinase activity was highly resistant to MdAdo. Analysis by flow cytometry showed that MdCyd showed the transit of the cells through the G2/M phase of the cell cycle resulting in the buildup of the G2/M population. MdAdo, MdGuo and MdCyd inhibited the incorporation of [14C]cytidine into DNA without an effect on RNA synthesis or total cellular uptake of [14C]cytidine. The conversion of [14C]cytidine to deoxycytidine nucleotides was partially inhibited by MdGuo, but not by MdAdo or MdCyd. These data show that the 2'-deoxy-2'-methylene derivatives of adenosine, guanosine and cytidine are activated via specific nucleoside kinases and that the modes of action of these compounds are not identical.

Use of nucleoside kinase-deficient mouse leukemia L1210 cell lines to determine metabolic routes of activation of antitumor nucleoside analogs

Mouse leukemia L1210 cell lines that were selected for resistance to deoxyguanosine (dGuo-R) or lacked adenosine kinase activity (ED2) were used to evaluate the nature of the nucleoside kinase that was required to phosphorylate nucleoside analogs to their respective active nucleotide form. The dGuo-R cells had reduced levels of kinase activity toward araC, dGuo and 2-CldAdo as substrates with essentially no loss of activity toward dCyd. This cell line showed resistance to dGuo, araC, araG, FdAdo, and Fara A but not to dAdo or araA. The ED2 cell line was resistant to pyrazofurin and 6-methylmercaptopurine riboside and to araA/EHNA but not to 2-CldAdo or 2-Cl-2'-FaraA. The study of the effects of newer nucleoside analogs such as dFdCyd, MdAdo, MdCyd and MdGuo in these cell lines showed that some of these agents are primarily phosphorylated by deoxyribonucleoside kinase (dFdCyd) or by adenosine kinase (MdAdo) or in some instances by multiple kinases (FaraA). These cell lines will be useful in defining the nature of the kinase(s) responsible for activating new nucleoside analogs and defining cross-resistance patterns.