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• Wijerathna, S
• Ahmad, M
• Xu, H
• Fairman, J
• Zhang, A
• Kaushal, P
• Wan, Q
• Kiser, J
• Dealwis, C
• [+] on Google Scholar
• Wijerathna, S
• Ahmad, M
• Xu, H
• Fairman, J
• Zhang, A
• Kaushal, P
• Wan, Q
• Kiser, J
• Dealwis, C
• [+] on PubMed
• Wijerathna, S
• Ahmad, M
• Xu, H
• Fairman, J
• Zhang, A
• Kaushal, P
• Wan, Q
• Kiser, J
• Dealwis, C

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Pharmaceuticals 2011, 4(10), 1328-1354; doi:10.3390/ph4101328

Review

Targeting the Large Subunit of Human Ribonucleotide Reductase for Cancer Chemotherapy

Sanath R. Wijerathna ^1,* , Md. Faiz Ahmad ¹ , Hai Xu ¹ , James W. Fairman ¹ , Andrew Zhang ¹ , Prem Singh Kaushal ¹ , Qun Wan ¹ , Jianying Kiser ¹  and Chris G. Dealwis ^1,2,*

¹ Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA ² Center for Proteomics and Bioinformatics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA

* Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received: 21 September 2011; in revised form: 27 September 2011 / Accepted: 30 September 2011 / Published: 13 October 2011

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Drug Design)

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Abstract: Ribonucleotide reductase (RR) is a crucial enzyme in de novo DNA synthesis, where it catalyses the rate determining step of dNTP synthesis. RRs consist of a large subunit called RR1 (α), that contains two allosteric sites and one catalytic site, and a small subunit called RR2 (β), which houses a tyrosyl free radical essential for initiating catalysis. The active form of mammalian RR is an a_nb_m hetero oligomer. RR inhibitors are cytotoxic to proliferating cancer cells. In this brief review we will discuss the three classes of RR, the catalytic mechanism of RR, the regulation of the dNTP pool, the substrate selection, the allosteric activation, inactivation by ATP and dATP, and the nucleoside drugs that target RR. We will also discuss possible strategies for developing a new class of drugs that disrupts the RR assembly.

Keywords: ribonucleotide reductase; gemcitabine; clofarabine; cladrabine; P6; P7; Cyc 10; dATP; ATP; allosteric regulation; specificity cross-talk; nucleotides

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