“…In fact, Int-B had been originally considered to be TSase intermediate , until the discovery of nucleophilic covalent activation of dUMP with active site cysteine and detection of the covalently bound ternary complex in crystal structures . Inspired by that early prediction, several studies reported synthesis and biological activity of stable analogues of Int-B , including thyminyl derivatives of H 4 F , and thymidinyl derivatives of dihydro- and tetrahydroquinoline, tetrahydropyridopyrimidines, pyrimidines, tetrahydroquinoxalines, and 8-deaza-5,6,7,8-tetrahydrofolate. , Interestingly, the latter compound, differing from Int-B only at the position 8 of the folate, appeared to be a potent nanomolar competitive inhibitor of human TSase. This intriguing fact and the prediction of QM/MM calculations encouraged us to examine competence of Int-B as an intermediate in the TSase-catalyzed reaction.…”