Inhibition of salvage pathway enzymes by adenine arabinoside 5'-monophosphate (ara-AMP).

The effect of 9-beta-arabinofuranosyladenine 5'-monophosphate (ara-AMP) on the purine salvage pathway has been studied. On a dose-dependent basis ara-AMP inhibits the incorporation of adenine-8-14C into nucleotides in intact erythrocytes. The partially purified enzymes of the purine salvage pathway, the adenine phosphoribosyltransferase and the 5'-phosphoribosyl-1-pyrophosphate (PP-ribose-P) synthetase, but not the hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase, are inhibited by ara-AMP in a non-competitive manner. The possible adverse drug interactions which might occur by the simultaneous use of ara-AMP and other antimetabolites are discussed.