Production and maintenance of a balanced pool of deoxyribonucleoside triphosphates (dNTPs) for DNA synthesis is of critical importance for cell division. Cellular dNTP pools are generated by two biosynthetic pathways: de novo synthesis and deoxyribonucleoside salvage. Amongst salvage pathway enzymes, deoxycytidine kinase (dCK) has unique properties: it provides cells with all 4 dNTPs required for DNA synthesis (dATP, dCTP, dGTP, dTTP) and activates many pro-drugs that are widely used in cancer, autoimmunity and viral infections such as gemcitabine, fludarabine and cladribine. dCK is highly expressed in hematopoietic/lymphoid cells and is also overexpressed in lymphoid malignancies and in some solid tumors. These properties make dCK an attractive therapeutic and imaging target.
Researchers at UCLA have generated a novel deoxycytidine kinase (dCK) conditional knockout mouse to better understand the function of the deoxyribonucleoside salvage pathway and identify new therapeutic targets for immune disorders and cancer.
The deoxycytidine kinase (dCK) conditional knockout mouse has been generated and validated.
Research tool, mouse model, deoxycytidine kinase, dCK, knockout mouse, immune disorders, deoxyribonucleoside salvage, cancer