BASE SPECIFICITY IN THE INHIBITION OF ONCORNAVIRUS REVERSE TRANSCRIPTASE AND CELLULAR NUCLEIC ACID POLYMERASES BY ANTITUMOR DRUGS *

Abstract

Adriamycin, daunomycin, acridylmethanesulfonanilide, and alkoxybenzophenanthridine alkaloids (coralyne acetosulfate, fagaronine chloride, and nitidine chloride) inhibit template-directed nucleic acid polymerizing enzyme activities like reverse transcriptase, DNA polymerase, and RNA polymerase. Enzyme reactions with poly(dA-dT), poly(rA)-oligo(dT) and poly(dA)-oligo(dT) are more strongly inhibited by the drugs than those with poly(dC)-poly(dG) and poly(rC)-oligo(dG). These results suggest that the antitumor drugs inhibit nucleic acid polymerases by a specific interaction with A:T base pairs of the templates.