Abstract

Neplanocin A, a novel cyclopentenyl analog of adenosine, is a naturally occurring antibiotic which exhibits significant antitumor activity against L1210 leukemia in mice (Yaginuma, S., Muto, N., Tsujino, M., Sudate, Y., Hayashi, M., and Otani, M. (1981) J. Antibiot. 34, 359-366). In the present study we demonstrate that neplanocin A is also a potent inhibitor of S-adenosylhomocysteine (AdoHcy) hydrolase (EC 3.3.1.1) having a Ki of 8.39 nM for the purified bovine liver enzyme. Analysis of the apparent irreversible inactivation of AdoHcy hydrolase by neplanocin A indicates that the drug is a tight binding inhibitor, exhibiting a stoichiometry of one molecule of inhibitor to one molecule (tetramer) of enzyme. In addition, we show that neplanocin A is a potent inhibitor of vaccinia virus (WR) multiplication in monolayer cultures of mouse L-cells. Concentrations of the drug as low as 0.5 and 1.0 microM in the culture medium produce 84 and 95% inhibition of plaque formation, respectively, while exhibiting little toxicity to the host cells. The inhibition of virus multiplication by neplanocin A coincides with a rapid inhibition of AdoHcy hydrolase activity in the infected cells and a subsequent 10-fold increase in the intracellular AdoHcy/S-adenosylmethionine ratio. These findings suggest that the antiviral actions of this compound may be related to an inhibition of S-adenosylmethionine-dependent macromolecular methylation reactions which are essential to the production of new virus particles (e.g. viral messenger RNA).