Antiviral guanosine analogs as substrates for deoxyguanosine kinase: implications for chemotherapy

A highly active form of human recombinant deoxyguanosine kinase (dGK) phosphorylated purine nucleoside analogs active against cytomegalovirus, hepatitis B virus, and human immunodeficiency virus, such as penciclovir, 2',3'-dideoxyguanosine and 3'-fluoro-2',3'-dideoxyguanosine. The antiherpesvirus drug ganciclovir, which is also used in gene therapy, was a substrate for dGK, but with low efficiency. ATP and UTP were both good phosphate donors, with apparent K(m) values of 6 and 4 microM and V(max) values of 34 and 90 nmol of dGMP/mg of dGK/min, respectively. With a mixture of 5 mM ATP and 0.05 mM UTP, which represent physiologically relevant concentrations, the activities of dGK with ganciclovir and penciclovir was 1% and approximately 10%, respectively, of that with dGuo. The levels of dGK in different tissues were determined with a selective enzyme assay and the total activities per gram of tissues were similar in liver, brain, heart, and thymus extracts. The fact that the cellular dGK enzyme can phosphorylate antiviral guanosine analogs may help to explain the efficacies and side effects of several forms of chemotherapy.

Human thymidine kinase 2: molecular cloning and characterisation of the enzyme activity with antiviral and cytostatic nucleoside substrates

Based on amino acid sequence information from purified mitochondrial thymidine kinase (TK2), a cDNA of 1930 bp was cloned, containing an open reading frame encoding 232 amino acid residues starting with the N-terminal sequence determined from the native human protein preparation. Northern blot analysis with the cDNA coding region demonstrated several TK2 mRNAs, with 2 and 4 kb forms present in many tissues. We also characterised N-terminally truncated (starting at position 18) human TK2 with pharmacologically important antiviral and cytostatic nucleoside analogues. Results were highly similar to those with the native TK2 preparation. The anti-leukaemic drug arabinosyl cytosine is phosphorylated. The antitumour drug difluorodeoxycytidine and its metabolite difluorodeoxyuridine are good substrates, with K(m) values of 66 and 29 microM, respectively, and a relative Vmax of 0.6 compared to that of thymidine. Negative cooperativity was found with thymidine and the anti-HIV drug 3'-azidothymidine, but the reaction followed Michaelis-Menten kinetics with deoxycytidine, arabinosyl cytosine, and arabinosyl thymine. The results demonstrate a broad substrate specificity and complex kinetics, and suggest a role for TK2 in the activation of chemotherapeutic nucleoside analogues.

Substrate specificity of human recombinant mitochondrial deoxyguanosine kinase with cytostatic and antiviral purine and pyrimidine analogs

Deoxyguanosine kinase (dGK) is an enzyme responsible for the phosphorylation of purine deoxynucleosides in mitochondria of mammalian cells. Its role in activation of pharmacologically used nucleoside analogs is not well understood, because of the low levels of dGK found in tissue extracts and its inactivation during purification. The cDNA for dGK was recently cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. Here we present an improved procedure for expression and purification of a highly active form of human recombinant dGK. The enzyme showed a broad substrate specificity toward natural purine and pyrimidine deoxynucleosides as well as toward important nucleoside analogs. The Km and Vmax values for deoxyguanosine, deoxyinosine, deoxyadenosine, and deoxycytidine were 4, 13, 460, 330 microM and 43, 330, 430 and 60 nmol/min/mg of protein, respectively. Antileukemic purine analogs such as arabinosyl guanine, 2-chloro-2'-deoxyadenosine, 2-chloro-2'-arabino-fluoro-2'-deoxyadenosine, and 2-fluoro-arabinosyl-adenine were phosphorylated as efficiently by dGK as the natural nucleoside substrates. This is the first report in which 2-fluoro-arabinosyl-adenine and 2-chloro-2'-arabino-fluoro-2'-deoxyadenosine were shown to be good substrates for dGK. The antiviral analogs dideoxyinosine and arabinosyl adenine also showed significant activity with dGK, as did several pyrimidine analogs (e.g., the cytostatic drugs 5-fluoro-2'-deoxycytidine and difluorodeoxycytidine). The broad specificity of dGK described here may change our understanding of the mechanisms responsible for the efficacy and mitochondrial toxicity of several nucleoside analogs.