Nelarabine – A New Age in the Management of Lymphoid Malignancies

Published: June 10, 2009
Abstract Views: 215
PDF: 228
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Authors

Nelarabine is the 6-methoxy prodrug of 9-b-D-arabinofuranosylguanine (ara-G)11 Nelarabine is a substrate for adenosine deaminase, which cleaves the methoxy group to form ara-G (Figure 1). Ara-G is taken up by the cell and is then triphosphorylated by two enzymes, deoxycytidine kinase and deoxyguanosine kinase2 (Figure 2). Ara-G triphosphate (ara-GTP) competes with deoxy-GTP in malignant cells for incorporation into DNA.3 Once incorporation occurs, ara-GTP results in chain termination and apoptosis.2 Ara-GTP accumulates to a greater extent in T-cells compared with B-cells. This may explain Nelarabine’s greater activity in T-cell malignancies than B-lymphocyte malignancies. Elimination half-life of ara-GTP is longer in leukemic T-cells than in leukemic B-cells.4

Dimensions

Altmetric

PlumX Metrics

Downloads

Citations

Supporting Agencies

How to Cite

Keating, M. (2009). Nelarabine – A New Age in the Management of Lymphoid Malignancies. Hematology Meeting Reports (formerly Haematologica Reports), 2(13). https://doi.org/10.4081/hmr.v2i13.486