PMID: 6972800Jul 1, 1981Paper

Effects of 2'-deoxycoformycin on the metabolism of purines and the survival of malignant cells in a patient with T-cell leukemia

Cancer Research
A L YuW L Nyhan

Abstract

The in vitro effects of deoxyadenosine and an adenosine deaminase inhibitor, deoxycoformycin, on the synthesis of DNA and the metabolism of purines were investigated in human leukemic T-cells. In the presence of 10 microM deoxycoformycin, the synthesis of DNA was completely inhibited by concentrations of deoxyadenosine of 10 microM or greater. In contrast, the synthesis of DNA in normal bone marrow cells was not inhibited in the presence of up to 20 microM deoxycoformycin and up to 10 microM deoxyadenosine. Following incubation of leukemia T-cells with deoxycoformycin and deoxyadenosine, there was a significant rise in the concentration of deoxyadenosine 5'-triphosphate which was accompanied by reductions in the concentrations of adenosine 5'-triphosphate and guanosine 5'-triphosphate, as revealed by high-pressure liquid chromatographic analysis. The effects of deoxycoformycin on T-cell leukemia were examined in vivo. A patient with acute T-cell leukemia in the terminal stage received five daily injections of 250 micrograms of deoxycoformycin per kg. Among the noted changes, most prominent was the drop in the leukocyte count. Initially, the cell count rose from 7,200 cells/microliters on Day 1 to 120,000 cells/microliters on Da...Continue Reading

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