High-pressure liquid chromatographic analysis of 3-deazauridine-5'-triphosphate in human cancer cells

A rapid high-pressure liquid chromatographic assay for the detection and quantitation of 3-deazauridine-5'-triphosphate (deazaUTP), the active metabolite of the anticancer drug 3-deazauridine (deazaUrd), in cell extracts is described. This procedure permits the simultaneous detection and quantitation of CTP, the cellular concentration of which is affected by treatment with deazaUrd. Human lymphoblastoid cells (line CCRF-CEM) treated with 100 nmols of deazaUrd/ml in culture accumulate deazaUTP to greater than 25 nmols/10(7) cells after 4 hours. The concentration of CTP in these cells decreased exponentially with a half-life of 1.1 hours. After these cells had been incubated with 100 nmols of deazaUrd/ml and were resuspended in drug-free medium, the intracellular deazaUTP concentration decreased exponentially with a half-life of 3.4 hours. This assay has been applied to clinical studies of deazaUrd; high cellular deazaUTP concentrations have been detected in brain tumor tissue after deazaUrd infusion.