Biochemical Modulation of Arabinosylcytosine for Therapy of Leukemias

Analysis of different ribonucleotide reductase inhibitors to modulate arabinosylcytosine (ara-C) metabolism suggested that pretreatment with arabinosyl-2-fluoroadenine (F-ara-A) significantly potentiated the rate of ara-CTP (5'-triphosphate of ara-C) accumulation in both quiescent lymphocytes (p = 0.046) and in cycling blasts (p = 0.017). In vitro incubations of freshly isolated leukemia cells from patients with chronic (n = 7) or acute (n = 5) leukemias with F-ara-A, increased the rate of ara-CTP accumulation by a median of 1.5 or 1.7-fold, respectively, when subsequently incubated with ara-C. The objective of the present investigation was to test the hypothesis that ara-C can be biochemically modulated during therapy of leukemias. To test the biochemical modulation of ara-C in the clinical setting, we designed two protocols to administer fludarabine (clinical formulation of F-ara-A) and ara-C in a pharmacologically directed sequence for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) refractory to conventional fludarabine therapy or for patients with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) in relapse. Comparison of ara-CTP pharmacokinetics demonstrated a significant increase in the area under concentration curve (AUC) of ara-CTP both in CLL (median 1.5-fold) and AML cells (median 1.8-fold) after fludarabine infusion. Analyses of different processes involved in the metabolism of ara-CTP indicated that the increase in AUC was due to potentiation of the rate of ara-CTP accumulation. These studies demonstrate that protocols designed on biochemical and pharmacological rationales modulate ara-C metabolism during therapies.