N4-Acetylcytidine is a modified nucleoside and endogenous urinary nucleoside product of the degradation of tRNA. N4-Acetylcytidine is a biological marker for various cancers with elevated concentrations present in urine. tRNA has been shown to be excreted in abnormal amounts in the urine of cancer patients. tRNA from neoplastic tissue had a much more rapid turnover rate than the tRNA from the corresponding normal tissue. Evidence indicates that methylation of tRNA occurs only after synthesis of the intact macromolecule. Because there are no specific enzyme systems to incorporate the modified nucleosides into the macromolecular nucleic acid, these nucleosides once released in the process of tRNA turnover cannot be reutilized, nor are they further degraded, but are excreted in urine.
N4-Acetylcytidine is also a partially protected cytidine and therefore can be used as a synthetic building block to prepare further derivatized nucleosides such as 2’,3’-dideoxycytidine.
