Antonı́n Holý

The (S)- and (R)-enantiomers of acyclic purine nucleoside phosphonate analogs (i.e., 3-hydroxy-2-phosphonomethoxypropyl [HPMP] derivatives, 3-fluoro-2-phosphonomethoxypropyl [FPMP] derivatives, and 2-phosphonomethoxypropyl [PMP] derivatives of adenine [A], 2-aminopurine, 2,6-diaminopurine [DAP], and guanine [G]) have been synthesized and evaluated for antiviral activity. As a rule, the HPMP derivatives proved effective against DNA viruses but not RNA viruses or retroviruses. In particular, (S)-HPMPA, (S)-HPMPDAP, and (R)- and (S)-HPMPG were exquisitely inhibitory to herpes simplex virus type 1 (50% effective concentrations, 0.63, 0.22, 0.10, and 0.66 microM, respectively). The FPMP and PMP derivatives showed marked inhibitory activities against retroviruses but not DNA viruses. The (S)-enantiomer of FPMPA and the (R)-enantiomer of PMPA were approximately 30- to 100-fold more effective against human immunodeficiency virus and Moloney murine sarcoma virus (MSV) than their enantiomeric counterparts. In contrast, both (S)- and (R)-enantiomers of the DAP and G derivatives proved equally effective against retroviruses, except for (R)-PMPDAP, which was 15- to 40-fold more inhibitory than (S)-PMPDAP. (R)-PMPDAP emerged as the most potent and selective inhibitor of MSV-induced transformation of murine C3H/3T3 cells and human immunodeficiency virus-induced cytopathicity in MT-4 and CEM cells (50% effective concentration, approximately 0.1 to 0.6 microM). When administered intraperitoneally at a single dose as low as 2 mg/kg, (R)-PMPDAP efficiently decreased MSV-induced tumor formation in newborn NMRI mice and significantly increased the survival time of MSV-infected mice. In addition, upon oral administration to MSV-infected mice, (R)-PMPDAP showed marked antiretroviral efficacy.

A study of the structure-activity relationship of a series of newly synthesized phosphonylmethoxyalkyl purine and pyrimidine derivatives revealed that several adenine derivatives substituted at the N9 position by a 2-phosphonylmethoxyethyl (PME) group inhibited human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-induced cytopathogenicity and HIV antigen expression in vitro at concentrations significantly below the toxicity threshold for the host cells. In terms of anti-HIV potency in MT-4 cells, the PME 2,6-diaminopurine derivative (50% effective dose [ED50], 1 microM) ranked first, followed by the PME adenine derivative (ED50, 2 microM [MT-4]) and the PME 2-monoaminopurine derivative (ED50, 45 microM). Antiretroviral activity was also demonstrated in ATH8 and H9 cells, which were de novo infected with HIV, and extended to C3H mouse fibroblasts infected with Moloney murine sarcoma virus. Unlike 2',3'-dideoxyadenosine, these compounds were not found to be degraded by deaminases derived from bovine intestine.