Mechanism of Activation of β- d -2′-Deoxy-2′-Fluoro-2′- C -Methylcytidine and Inhibition of Hepatitis C Virus NS5B RNA Polymerase

β-d -2′-Deoxy-2′-fluoro-2′-C -methylcytidine (PSI-6130) is a potent specific inhibitor of hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA synthesis in Huh-7 replicon cells. To inhibit the HCV NS5B RNA polymerase, PSI-6130 must be phosphorylated to the 5′-triphosphate form. The phosphorylation of PSI-6130 and inhibition of HCV NS5B were investigated. The phosphorylation of PSI-6130 by recombinant human 2′-deoxycytidine kinase (dCK) and uridine-cytidine kinase 1 (UCK-1) was measured by using a coupled spectrophotometric reaction. PSI-6130 was shown to be a substrate for purified dCK, with aKm of 81 μM and ak cat of 0.007 s−1 , but was not a substrate for UCK-1. PSI-6130 monophosphate (PSI-6130-MP) was efficiently phosphorylated to the diphosphate and subsequently to the triphosphate by recombinant human UMP-CMP kinase and nucleoside diphosphate kinase, respectively. The inhibition of wild-type and mutated (S282T) HCV NS5B RNA polymerases was studied. The steady-state inhibition constant (Ki ) for PSI-6130 triphosphate (PSI-6130-TP) with the wild-type enzyme was 4.3 μM. Similar results were obtained with 2′-C -methyladenosine triphosphate (Ki = 1.5 μM) and 2′-C -methylcytidine triphosphate (Ki = 1.6 μM). NS5B with the S282T mutation, which is known to confer resistance to 2′-C -methyladenosine, was inhibited by PSI-6130-TP as efficiently as the wild type. Incorporation of PSI-6130-MP into RNA catalyzed by purified NS5B RNA polymerase resulted in chain termination.