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Abstract

2′,3′,5′-Trideoxyuridine-5′-methylphosphonate, [8], was synthesized from ddU. The 5′,6′ carbon-carbon bond was formed by condensing the 5′-aldehyde of ddU and a Wittig reagent. The binding interaction of the diphosphate derivative [10] of the phosphonate [8] with HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (RT) was studied using methods based primarily on fluorescence spectroscopy. From the quenching of intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence of RT during its titration against [10], a dissociation constant of 24 μm was calculated at 25°C. In the presence of a DNA/DNA template/primer of defined sequence and RT, [10] and a fluorescent derivative of ddTTP competed for binding to RT without incorporation of ddU-5′-methylphosphonate. In the presence of a 0.5 mm concentration of [10], the RT activity measured with Poly(rA)/(dT)15 and [3H] dTTP was lowered to 65%. All our observations are consistent with suppression of the catalysis of bond formation between the OH at the primer 3′-end and α-P of [10] after formation of the complex between RT, template/primer and [10].