Roscovitine and flavopiridol suppress cyclin-dependent kinase 7 (CDK7) and CDK9 activity resulting in transcription inhibition, thus providing an alternative mechanism to traditional genotoxic chemotherapy. These agents have been effective in slow or nonreplicative cell types. 8-Amino-adenosine is a transcription inhibitor that has proved very effective in multiple myeloma cell lines and primary indolent leukemia cells. The objective of the current work was to define mechanisms of action that lead to transcription inhibition by 8-amino-adenosine. 8-Amino-adenosine is metabolized into the active triphosphate (8-amino-ATP) in cells. This accumulation resulted in a simultaneous decrease of intracellular ATP and RNA synthesis. When the effects of established ATP synthesis inhibitors and transcription inhibitors on intracellular ATP concentrations and RNA synthesis were studied, there was a strong correlation between ATP decline and RNA synthesis. This correlation substantiated the hypothesis that the loss of ATP in 8-amino-adenosine-treated cells contributes to the decrease in transcription due to the lack of substrate needed for mRNA body and polyadenylation tail synthesis. RNA polymerase II COOH terminal domain phosphorylation declined sharply in 8-amino-adenosine-treated cells, which may have been due to the lack of an ATP phosphate donor or competitive inhibition with 8-amino-ATP at CDK7 and CDK9. Furthermore, 8-amino-ATP was incorporated into nascent RNA in a dose-dependent manner at the 3'-end resulting in transcription termination. Finally, in vitro transcription assays showed that 8-amino-ATP competes with ATP for incorporation into mRNA. Collectively, we have concluded that 8-amino-adenosine elicits effects on multiple mechanisms of transcription, providing a new class of transcription inhibitors.
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