Comparison of triazines as inhibitors of L1210 dihydrofolate reductase and of L1210 cells sensitive and resistant to methotrexate.

The inhibition of dihydrofolate reductase from L1210 leukemia cells as well as the inhibition of intact L1210 cells, both sensitive and resistant, to methotrexate by over 100, 4,6-diamino-2,2-dihydro-2,2-dimethyl-1-(X-phenyl)-s-triazines was studied. Quantitative structure-activity relationships were derived for the three systems. These equations, based on a set of congeners having a range in lipophilicity of about 700,000,000 on the octanol-water scale, delineate the inhibitory potency of the triazines in relation to their hydrophobicity. The data demonstrate that there is a close parallel between the way isolated dihydrofolate reductase and methotrexate sensitive cells respond to the triazines. However, the resistant L1210 cells behave in an entirely different manner, which suggests that the passive diffusion of triazines into the cells dominates the structure-activity relationship. The optimum lipophilicity (pi 0) of triazine substituents for purified L1210 dihydrofolate reductase is 1.76 to 2.11; for sensitive cells, it is 1.45 to 1.83, and for resistant cells, it is approximately 6.