gamma-Fluoromethotrexate: synthesis and biological activity of a potent inhibitor of dihydrofolate reductase with greatly diminished ability to form poly-gamma-glutamates.

A methotrexate (MTX) analog containing fluorine at the gamma-carbon of the glutamate moiety, gamma-fluoromethotrexate (FMTX), has been synthesized and evaluated for its biochemical and pharmacological properties. FMTX inhibition of dihydrofolate reductase from several sources is nearly equivalent to that shown by MTX. Most important, FMTX is an exceedingly poor substrate for folylpoly (gamma-glutamate) synthetase, the enzyme that catalyzes the biosynthesis of the highly-retained, cytotoxic MTX polyglutamates. Uptake experiments in H35 hepatoma cells show that FMTX accumulates to approximately the same extent as MTX at steady state. The rapid efflux of both derivatives is also very similar. The major difference detected in cells between the two compounds is the meager glutamylation of FMTX, due to the electronegative properties of the fluorine adjacent to the potential amide-forming carboxyl group. Exposure of dividing cells to 50 microM MTX for 2 and 6 hr results in the formation of 55 and 130 nmol, respectively, of the polyglutamates (more than two glutamate residues)/g of cell protein. With FMTX these values were reduced by 98% and 93%, respectively. Growth inhibition studies show that MTX is only 12-fold more toxic than FMTX when the cells are exposed to each derivative continuously for 72 hr. When the exposure time is reduced, a greater disparity between the inhibitory effects is observed; with a 2-hr pulse, MTX is 2300-fold more effective than FMTX. These data correlate with the effects of pulses of FMTX and MIX on de novo thymidylate biosynthesis in intact cells. The results indicate that of the parameters examined, the vastly reduced toxicity of FMTX after its removal from the culture medium is best correlated with impaired glutamylation. The data strongly suggest that prolonged toxicity of MTX is a result of metabolic conversion to MTX polyglutamates and that these effects are far more dramatic in short-term than in long-term exposure to the antifolates.