Characterization of the metabolic activation of hepatitis C virus nucleoside inhibitor β-D-2′-deoxy-2′-fluoro-2′-C- methylcytidine (PSI-6130) and identification of a novel active 5′-triphosphate species

Abstract

β-D-2′-Deoxy-2′-fluoro-2′-C-methylcytidine (PSI-6130) is a potent inhibitor of hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication in the subgenomic HCV replicon system, and its corresponding 5′-triphosphate is a potent inhibitor of the HCV RNA polymerase in vitro. In this study the formation of PSI-6130-triphosphate was characterized in primary human hepatocytes. PSI-6130 and its 5′-phosphorylated derivatives were identified, and the intracellular concentrations were determined. In addition, the deaminated derivative of PSI-6130, β-D-2′-deoxy-2′-fluoro- 2′-C-methyluridine (RO2433, PSI-6026) and its corresponding phosphorylated metabolites were identified in human hepatocytes after incubation with PSI-6130. The formation of the 5′-triphosphate (TP) of PSI-6130 (PSI-6130-TP) and RO2433 (RO2433-TP) increased with time and reached steady state levels at 48 h. The formation of both PSI-6130-TP and RO2433-TP demonstrated a linear relationship with the extracellular concentrations of PSI-6130 up to 100 μM, suggesting a high capacity of human hepatocytes to generate the two triphosphates. The mean half-lives of PSI-6130-TP and RO2433-TP were 4.7 and 38 h, respectively. RO2433-TP also inhibited RNA synthesis by the native HCV replicase isolated from HCV replicon cells and the recombinant HCV polymerase NS5B with potencies comparable with those of PSI-6130-TP. Incorporation of RO2433-5′-monophosphate (MP) into nascent RNA by NS5B led to chain termination similar to that of PSI-6130-MP. These results demonstrate that PSI-6130 is metabolized to two pharmacologically active species in primary human hepatocytes. © 2007 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.