Relaxed enantioselectivity of human mitochondrial thymidine kinase and chemotherapeutic uses of L-nucleoside analogues

Our discovery that Herpes virus thymidine kinase (TK) and cellular deoxycytidine kinase lack enantioselectivity, being able to phosphorylate both D- and L-enantiomers of the substrate, suggested the use of unnatural L-nucleoside analogues as antiviral drugs (Herpes, hepatitis and immunodeficiency viruses). Several L-nucleoside analogues have displayed a short-term cytotoxicity much lower than their corresponding D-counterpart. Since the delayed cytotoxicity of a drug often depends on its effects on mitochondrial metabolism, we have investigated the degree of enantioselectivity of human mitochondrial thymidine kinase (mt-TK). We demonstrate that mt-TK does not show an absolute enantioselectivity, being able to recognize, although with lower efficiency, the L-enantiomers of thymidine, deoxycytidine and modified deoxyuridines, such as (E)-5-(2-bromovinyl)-2ʹ-deoxyuridine and 5-iodo-2ʹ-deoxyuridine. Interestingly, the reported negative co-operativity of mt-TK phosphorylating β-D-2ʹ-deoxythymidine (D-Thd), disappears when the deoxyribose moiety has the inverted configuration, resulting in the preferential phosphorylation of D-Thd even in the presence of high concentrations of the L-enantiomer. This, coupled with the higher Km for β-l-2ʹ-deoxythymidine (L-Thd), makes mt-TK resistant to high concentrations of L-Thd and L-Thd analogues, minimizing the mitochondria-dependent delayed cytotoxicity that might be caused by the administration of l-nucleoside analogues as antivirals.