Cancer Research Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Špitálská 21, 812 32 Bratislava, Czechoslovakia
The electrochemical characteristics and carcinogenic parameter tg a of the natural and synthetic analogs of nucleic acid components were studied. The attention was payed to:
1. derivatives of cytidine and arabinosylcytosine,
2. derivatives of uridine and arabinosyluracil,
3. analogs of 5-fluorouridine,
4. 5-cyano-, 5-cartoxy- and 5-aza-cytosine analogs.
Polarographic measurements were performed using a three-electrode circuit with I. R. compensation. A dropping mercury electrode, was used as the indicating electrode in the strictly anhydrous conditions of N,N'-dimethylformamide and in Britton Robinson buffers at various pH. The relationships between half--wave potential Exl2, parameter tg a, chemical structure of nucleosides and some of their biological effects was evaluated. It was shown that parameter tg a is related to lipophilicity and a nucleoside ability to be metabolized. On other hand, it is documented that the nucleoside molecules are too complex to find a simple correlation between the physico-chemical properties of these compounds and their biological effects. Correlations between respective parameters were found in small groups of compounds where only one parameter (e.g. lipophilicity) was changed without any change in the mechanism of activity.
Electrochemical study on new cytotoxic nucleoside analogs
