Zidovudine is a medication used to prevent and to treat HIV/AIDS. It is part of the an antiretroviral and belongs to the NRTI class of drugs, also known as nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors and its generic name is azidothymidine. Zidovudine is generally taken orally, which begins this pathway. After being ingested, Zidovudine is transported into the cell using 6 transporters, namely SLC28A1, SLC28A3, SLC22A6, SLC22A7, SLC22A8, and SLC22A11. After entering the cell, Zidovudine is converted by TK1 to create zidovudine monophosphate. Zidovudine monophosphate is then turned into zidovudine diphosphate through the enzyme DTYMK. Zidovudine diphosphate undergoes a final transformation into zidovudine triphosphate, before being able to perform its intended function and inhibiting HIV RT. Zidovudine also undergoes two other branches of reactions upon entering the cell, the first being catalyzation into 5’-glucuronyl zidovudine, and subsequently being converted by an unknown protein into 3’amino-3’-deoxy-5’-glcopyranuronosylthymidine, which is then eliminated. The second branch of reactions that zidovudine undergoes is its conversion to 3’-amino-3’-deoxythymidine, through the various proteins CYP2C9, CYP2A6, CYP2E1, CYP3A4, and POR, which may or may not be cytotoxic in the cell.

Zidovudine Action Pathway References