Unexpected synergy between N-phosphonacetyl-L-aspartate and cytidine against human tumor cells

Cytidine, a non-toxic endogenous nucleoside, was found unexpectedly to augment the cytotoxicity of a pyrimidine antimetabolite N-phosphonacetyl-L-aspartate (PALA) in human ovarian carcinoma cells. The PALA/cytidine synergy is confirmed here in other human tumor cells (T242 melanoma, HL60 promyelocytic leukemia and SKOV3 ovarian carcinoma) in the cytidine concentration range of 1-10 micromolar. The synergy was not observed in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. Exogenous uridine (5-50 microM) completely reversed the PALA/cytidine cytotoxicity in a concentration-dependent manner. Measurements of cellular ribonucleotide levels revealed that the PALA treated cells had reduced UTP and CTP pools (10% and 40% of control respectively); and the PALA/cytidine treated cells had elevated CTP and GTP levels while their UTP levels remained at 10% of control. Deoxyribonucleotide levels were unremarkable except for a slight elevation of dCTP in the PALA/cytidine treated cells. Uridine competitively inhibited radioactive cytidine transport into 2008 cells, which may explain its ability to antagonize the PALA/cytidine synergy. These results suggest that the ribonucleotide biosynthetic mechanism is the primary cellular target for PALA/cytidine activity, and that the ratio of ribonucleotides to each other is an important determinant of tumor cell viability. The use of non-cytotoxic nucleosides to augment the activity of antimetabolites may have clinical relevance in cancer therapy.