2'-Deoxyuridine (dU)

2'-Deoxyuridine is a pyrimidine nucleoside composed of the nucleobase uracil attached to the pentose sugar deoxyribose, serving as a critical intermediate in the de novo synthesis of thymidine nucleotides required for DNA replication (PubChem CID 6012). Within the cell, it is converted to deoxyuridine monophosphate (dUMP), which is then methylated by thymidylate synthase to form deoxythymidine monophosphate (dTMP) (Wikipedia). Although deoxyuridine is a metabolite rather than a protein target, it is the structural scaffold for a major class of antimetabolite drugs used in oncology and virology (DrugBank DB02659). Drugs such as 5-fluorouracil and trifluridine are halogenated analogs of deoxyuridine that disrupt cellular proliferation by inhibiting thymidylate synthase or inducing DNA damage through misincorporation (NIH/NCBI). Furthermore, the deoxyuridine suppression test remains a classic biochemical assay for evaluating folate and vitamin B12 status in clinical hematology (PubMed).

Other names

Uracil deoxyriboside1-(2-deoxy-beta-D-ribofuranosyl)uracilDeoxyuridinedUrd

Analogs of deoxyuridine act as antimetabolites by competitively inhibiting thymidylate synthase or by being incorporated into DNA, leading to DNA damage, chain termination, and apoptosis (DrugBank DB02659).