Anti-Human Immunodeficiency Virus Activity, Cross-Resistance, Cytotoxicity, and Intracellular Pharmacology of the 3′-Azido-2′,3′-Dideoxypurine Nucleosides

Although the approved nucleoside reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibitors (NRTI) are integral components of therapy for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection, they can have significant limitations, including the selection of NRTI-resistant HIV-1 and cellular toxicity. Accordingly, there is a critical need to develop new NRTI that have excellent activity and safety profiles and exhibit little or no cross-resistance with existing drugs. In this study, we report that the 3′-azido-2′,3′-dideoxypurine nucleosides (ADPNs) 3′-azido-2′,3′-dideoxyadenosine (3′-azido-ddA) and 3′-azido-2′,3′-dideoxyguanosine (3′-azido-ddG) exert potent antiviral activity in primary human lymphocytes and HeLa and T-cell lines (50% inhibitory concentrations [IC50 s] range from 0.19 to 2.1 μM for 3′-azido-ddG and from 0.36 to 10 μM for 3′-azido-ddA) and that their triphosphate forms are incorporated as efficiently as the natural dGTP or dATP substrates by HIV-1 RT. Importantly, both 3′-azido-ddA and 3′-azido-ddG retain activity against viruses containing K65R, L74V, or M184V (IC50 change of <2.0-fold) and against those containing three or more thymidine analog mutations (IC50 change of <3.5-fold). In addition, 3′-azido-ddG does not exhibit cytotoxicity in primary lymphocytes or epithelial or T-cell lines and does not decrease the mitochondrial DNA content of HepG2 cells. Furthermore, 3′-azido-ddG is efficiently phosphorylated to 3′-azido-ddGTP in human lymphocytes, with an intracellular half-life of the nucleoside triphosphate of 9 h. The present data suggest that additional preclinical studies are warranted to assess the potential of ADPNs for treatment of HIV-1 infection.