Description

Cytarabine is an antimetabolite analogue of cytidine (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/cytidine) with a modified sugar moiety ( arabinose (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/arabinose) instead of ribose (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/ribose) ). Cytarabine is converted to the triphosphate (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/triphosphate) form within the cell and then competes with cytidine (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/cytidine) for incorporation into DNA. Because the arabinose (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/arabinose) sugar sterically hinders the rotation of the molecule within DNA, DNA replication ceases, specifically during the S phase of the cell cycle. This agent also inhibits DNA polymerase, resulting in a decrease in DNA replication and repair.