Aspartate carbamoyltransferase activity, drug concentrations, and pyrimidine nucleotides in tissue from patients treated with N-(phosphonacetyl)-L-aspartate.

Biopsy specimens were obtained from patients treated with N-(phosphonacetyl)-L-aspartate (PALA) in a phase I clinical trial. Activities of aspartate carbamoyltransferase (ACTase), the target enzyme, in ten specimens before treatment varied from 0.4 to 1.7 units/mg. PALA was measured in protein-free extracts of thirteen specimens by inhibition of rat ACTase. At 1.5 to 145 hr after doses of 1 to 6 g/m2, PALA concentrations were 0.9 to 89 micrograms/g; at 4 hr or later the tissue concentrations were similar to those in plasma (five samples). The observed inhibition of ACTase (17-87%) correlated with the PALA concentrations. Pyrimidine nucleotides were decreased (relative to purine nucleotides) in nine to ten specimens, by 16-72%. ACTase partially purified from human spleen had a Km for carbamoyl phosphate of 20.6 microM and the Ki for PALA was 0.011 microM. The results suggest that inhibition of ACTase by PALA affects the concentration of pyrimidine nucleotides in human tumors in a dose-dependent manner.