Interactions of cytostatic unsaturated ketonucleosides with sulfhydryl containing cell constituents

The cytostatic unsaturated ketonucleosides, 1, 2, 3 and 4 are highly reactive sulfhydryl blocking agents. Kinetics of their reactions with reduced glutathione (GSH) were measured and their reactivity was compared to that of N-ethylmaleimide (NEM), acrylonitrile and chloroacetamide. Their reaction products with N-acetyl-L-cysteine (AcCys) were prepared and characterized by chemical analysis and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Compounds 1, 2 and 3 gave Michael type 1:1 addition products. Compound 4 reacted with AcCys by a three step mechanism; the primary addition product 8 underwent an unusual elimination reaction giving the unsaturated compound 9, which yielded the addition product 10 with AcCys. In the reaction with GSH, compound 4 behaved like a bifunctional SH alkylating agent. Compounds 1, 2, 3 and 4 also reacted with protein thiols as shown by their ability to inhibit lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). Unsaturated ketonucleosides had diversified effect on L1210 leukemia cells. While the most potent cytostatics, compounds 1 and 3, reduced considerably the membrane surface SH level, they were without effect on soluble intracellular protein thiols. In contrast, nucleosides 2 and 4, less active than the former, only slightly affected the membrane surface sulfhydryls and considerably depleted the intracellular soluble protein thiols. Only slight differences were found between the reactions of the four nucleosides with non-protein SH (NPSH). The correlation found between in vivo biological activity and cell membrane impairment suggests that selective alkylation of certain key membrane thiols by unsaturated ketonucleosides might be an important event in their biological effect.