Current medicinal chemistry
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The reductive conversion of ribonucleotides to deoxyribonucleotides by ribonucleotide reductase (RR) is a crucial and rate-controlling step in the pathway leading to the biosynthesis of DNA, since deoxyribonucleotides are present in extremely low levels in mammalian cells. Mammalian ribonucleotide reductase (RR) is composed of two dissimilar proteins, often referred to as R(1), which contains polythiols and R(2), which contains non-heme iron and a free tyrosyl radical. Both the R(1) and R(2) subunits contribute to the active site of the enzyme. ⋯ More significantly, the ortho-phosphate prodrug 21 demonstrated impressive antitumor effect using once-a-day dosing regimen. In summary, the results disclosed herein demonstrated that some of 3-AP prodrugs prepared indeed demonstrated improved pharmaceutical, biological and toxicity profiles over the parent 3-AP. Efforts directed towards further optimization of 3-AP prodrugs as novel anticancer agents is clearly warranted.