FOLIC ACID METABOLISM AS A TARGET OF CHEMOTHERAPY

拟议的项目是长期研究工作的一部分，旨在 开发肿瘤疾病化疗的新方法。 本研究的主要目的是设计新颖的目标导向 基于生物化学和机械原理的抗叶酸剂 结构和功能信息并研究它们的影响 细胞和分子水平。 作为具体目标，拟议的研究 专注于两个相互关联的代谢循环的酶，其中一个负责 用于叶酸的聚-γ-谷氨酸盐的形成和分解 和抗叶酸剂以及其他叶酰聚谷氨酸依赖剂 胸苷酸的生物合成（TS 循环）。 拟议的研究集 具体目标如下： 设计和综合潜力 叶酰聚谷氨酸合成酶、γ-谷氨酰水解酶抑制剂 （缀合酶）、胸苷酸合成酶、二氢叶酸还原酶和丝氨酸 羟甲基转移酶；评估抑制剂的影响 它们在细胞酶系统中各自的目标；以确定 目标化合物对L1210小鼠的生长抑制作用 培养中的 CCRF-CEM 人类白血病细胞；研究其机制 使用在分子水平上选择的抑制剂-酶相互作用 酶学、X射线晶体学、分子力学和 计算机图形学；研究活性抗叶酸剂的多谷氨酰化 及其对生物活性的重要性；关联细胞和 无细胞酶抑制活性和体外细胞毒性数据以及 基于这些相关性选择体内生物学候选者 测试。 药物-酶相互作用的研究可以增进我们的知识 叶酸依赖性酶的机制并提供新的原理 用于抑制剂设计。 由于叶酸代谢与 核酸生物合成和细胞增殖，这项研究可能 导致肿瘤生物学的重要观察和新的方法 癌症治疗。

The proposed project is part of a long range research effort aimed at the development of new approaches to the chemotherapy of neoplastic diseases. The main objective of this research is to design novel target-oriented antifolates based on biochemical and mechanistic rationales derived from structural and functional information and to study their effects at the cellular and molecular level. As specific targets, the proposed study focuses on enzymes of two interrelated metabolic cycles, one responsible for the formation and breakdown of the poly-gamma-glutamates of folates and antifolates and the other the folylpolyglutamate dependent biosynthesis of thymidylate (the TS cycle). The proposed research sets the following specific aims: To design and synthesize potential inhibitors of folylpolyglutamate synthetase, gamma-glutamyl hydrolase (conjugase), thymidylate synthase, dihydrofolate reductase and serine hydroxymethyl transferase; to evaluate the effects of the inhibitors on their respective targets in cellular enzyme systems; to determine the growth inhibitory effects of the target compounds on L1210 mouse and CCRF-CEM human leukemia cells in culture; to study the mechanism of selected inhibitor-enzyme interactions at the molecular level using techniques of enzymology, X-ray crystallography, molecular mechanics and computer graphics; to study the polyglutamylation of active antifolates and its importance for biological activity; to correlate cellular and cell-free enzyme inhibitory activity with in vitro cytotoxicity data and based on these correlations select candidates for in vivo biological testing. The study of drug-enzyme interactions may further our knowledge of the mechanisms of folate dependent enzymes and furnish new rationales for inhibitor design. Since folate metabolism is intimately linked to nucleic acid biosynthesis and cellular proliferation, this research may lead to important observations in tumor biology and new approaches to cancer treatment.