Effects of nucleoside analogues, lipophilic prodrugs and elaidic acids on core signaling pathways in cancer cells

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Nucleoside analogs such as gemcitabine (GEM; dFdC) and cytarabine (Ara-C) require nucleoside transporters to enter cells, and deficiency in equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1 (ENT1) can lead to resistance to these drugs. To facilitate transport-independent uptake, prodrugs with a fatty acid chain attached to the 5'-position of the ribose group of gemcitabine or cytarabine were developed (CP-4126 and CP-4055, respectively). As antimetabolites can activate cellular survival pathways, we investigated whether the prodrugs or their side-chains had similar or decreased effects.