mercaptopurine and 6-thioguanosine

Bacillus anthracis, the etiological agent of anthrax, has a dormant stage in its life cycle known as the endospore. When conditions become favorable, spores germinate and transform into vegetative bacteria. In inhalational anthrax, the most fatal manifestation of the disease, spores enter the organism through the respiratory tract and germinate in phagosomes of alveolar macrophages. Germinated cells can then produce toxins and establish infection. Thus, germination is a crucial step for the initiation of pathogenesis. B. anthracis spore germination is activated by a wide variety of amino acids and purine nucleosides. Inosine and l-alanine are the two most potent nutrient germinants in vitro. Recent studies have shown that germination can be hindered by isomers or structural analogues of germinants. 6-Thioguanosine (6-TG), a guanosine analogue, is able to inhibit germination and prevent B. anthracis toxin-mediated necrosis in murine macrophages. In this study, we screened 46 different nucleoside analogues as activators or inhibitors of B. anthracis spore germination in vitro. These compounds were also tested for their ability to protect the macrophage cell line J774a.1 from B. anthracis cytotoxicity. Structure-activity relationship analysis of activators and inhibitors clarified the binding mechanisms of nucleosides to B. anthracis spores. In contrast, no structure-activity relationships were apparent for compounds that protected macrophages from B. anthracis-mediated killing. However, multiple inhibitors additively protected macrophages from B. anthracis.

Topics: Alanine; Animals; Bacillus anthracis; Cell Line; Guanosine; Macrophages; Mice; Spores, Bacterial; Structure-Activity Relationship; Thionucleosides

This study describes approaches for stacking a large volume of sample solutions containing a mixture of mercaptopurine monohydrate, 6-methylmercaptopurine, thioguanine, thioguanosine, and thioxanthine in capillary electrophoresis (CE). After filling the run buffer (60 mM borate buffer, pH 8.5), a large sample volume was loaded by hydrodynamic injection (2.5 psi, 99.9 s), followed by the removal of the large plug of sample matrix from the capillary using polarity switching (-15 kV). Monitoring the current and reversing the polarity when 95% of current recovered, the separation of anionic analytes was performed in a run buffer < 20 kV. Around 44- to 90-fold improvement of sensitivity for five analytes was achieved by large-volume stacking with polarity switching when compared with CE without stacking. This method was feasible for determination of the analytes spiked in plasma. Removing most of electrolytes from plasma is a key step for performing large-volume sample stacking. Solid-phase extraction was used for pretreatment of biological samples. To our knowledge, this study is one of few applications showing the possibilities of this stacking procedure to analyze biological samples by large-volume sample stacking with polarity switching (LVSSPS) in CE.

Topics: Electrophoresis, Capillary; Guanosine; Humans; Mercaptopurine; Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma; Sensitivity and Specificity; Thioguanine; Thionucleosides; Xanthines

The metabolism of 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP) in L-1210 mouse leukemia cells and human chronic myelocytic leukemia cells (CML cells) was examined. The acid-soluble fractions obtained from cells incubated with [8-14C]6-MP were chromatographed on a Dowex-1 formate resin column using a formic acid linear gradient elution system. Chromatography of the extract of L-1210 cells revealed four principal radioactive peaks. The fraction containing the third peak was hydrolyzed by snake venom 5'-nucleotidase (Crotalus adamanteus). Cellulose thin layer chromatography revealed that the radioactive peak of the hydrolysate corresponded to 6-thioguanosine. The results showed that 6-MP was converted to 6-thioinosinic acid (6-TIMP) and 6-thioguanylic acid (6-TGMP) in L-1210 cells. In order to elucidate the pathway of 6-MP conversion to 6-TGMP, we examined the interaction of [8-14C]6-TIMP and purified IMP dehydrogenase. It was found by DEAE-cellulose thin layer chromatography that the IMP dehydrogenase converted 6-TIMP to 6-thioxanthylic acid (6-TXMP). Dowex-1 chromatography of the acid-soluble extract of human CML cells incubated with [8-14C]-6-MP also revealed a radioactive peak corresponding to 6-TGMP. These results suggest that 6-MP is metabolized to 6-TGMP by serial conversion to 6-TIMP and 6-TXMP through the de novo GMP synthetic pathway in L-1210 cells and human CML cells.

Topics: Animals; Cells, Cultured; Chromatography; Chromatography, DEAE-Cellulose; Guanine Nucleotides; Guanosine; Humans; IMP Dehydrogenase; Kinetics; Leukemia L1210; Leukemia, Myeloid; Mercaptopurine; Mice; Thionucleosides; Thionucleotides

Mammalian cells incorporate 6-thioguanosine into their nucleic acids when grown in the presence of 6-mercaptopurine. 35S-labeled total RNA was prepared from L5178Y murine lymphoma cells grown in vitro in the presence of 6-[35S]mercaptopurine. Base analyses of this RNA suggested that 6-thioguanosine residues in RNA molecules undergo posttranscriptional modification. Thus, enzymatic peak-shifting analyses using anion-exchange high-performance liquid chromatography were applied to the hydrolysis products released from total RNA preparations by digestion with nuclease P1 or nuclease P1 plus nucleotide pyrophosphatase. At least eight 35S-labeled, phosphatase-sensitive compounds structurally different from [35S]6thioGMP were found in nuclease P1 digests. Four of these compounds were susceptible to cleavage with nucleotide pyrophosphatase, thus indicating that they contained phosphoric acid anhydride bonds. Individual RNA species were not separately examined, the radiochromatographic data, however, which were obtained from digests of total RNA preparations, present evidence that 6-thioguanosine 5'-diphosphate and 6-thioguanosine 5'-triphosphate exist as 5'-terminal starting nucleotides (in tRNA and rRNA) and that 6-thioguanosine becomes incorporated into the highly modified dinucleoside triphosphate structures (caps) which commonly block the 5'-termini of eukaryotic poly(A)+ mRNA-molecules.

Topics: Animals; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Guanosine; Leukemia L5178; Leukemia, Experimental; Mercaptopurine; Mice; Ribonucleosides; RNA Processing, Post-Transcriptional; RNA, Neoplasm; Sulfur Radioisotopes; Thionucleosides

The actions of 6-thioguanine (TG) and 6-mercaptopurine (MP) were compared in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. Several differences were noted between these two agents. TG caused a greater maximal loss of clonogenicity, leaving about one log fewer survivors than did MP, although the cells killed by MP appeared to succumb much more rapidly than those killed by TG. MP-treated populations experienced a G1 or G1/S arrest which was quickly reversed upon drug removal, while TG-treated cells were arrested in late S/G2, after some delay. Although TG induced a gross chromosome deformation [unilateral chromatid damage, as described earlier in Maybaum and Mandel, Cancer Res. 43, 3852 (1983)] MP caused little or no such deformation. Addition of 4-amino-5-imidazolecarboxamide (AIC) to MP treatments antagonized MP-induced loss of clonogenicity, while AIC caused a dose-dependent potentiation of TG-induced loss of clonogenicity. The interaction between TG and AIC does not seem to represent an increase in either purine starvation or incorporation of TG into DNA, suggesting that a third mechanism is involved. We suggest that this additional mechanism may possibly be related to the induction of differentiation by TG that has been reported in other systems.

Topics: Aminoimidazole Carboxamide; Animals; Cell Line; Chromatids; Colony-Forming Units Assay; Cricetinae; Cricetulus; DNA; Drug Interactions; Female; Guanosine; Kinetics; Mercaptopurine; Ovary; Thionucleosides

Topics: Animals; Body Fluids; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Chromatography, Ion Exchange; Goats; Guanosine; Humans; Injections, Intravenous; Inosine; Mercaptopurine; Thioguanine; Thioinosine; Thionucleosides