Thymidine (Thymidine)

Thymidine is a nucleoside, that is, a compound consisting of a nitrogenous base and sugar. Thymidine contains thymine, one of the purine bases, and ribose, a five-carbon sugar. Thymidine plays an important role in the processes of binding and transferring genetic information in cells.

Thymidine is one of the four nucleosides that make up DNA nucleotides. Thymidine combines with deoxyribose (a sugar) and a phosphate group to form the nucleotide deoxythymidine diphosphate (dTMP), which is part of DNA. During DNA replication, thymidine and other nucleotides bind to complementary nucleotides to form two new DNA strands.

The importance of thymidine for the normal functioning of cells lies in the fact that it is involved in the processes of regulating cell growth and differentiation. Thymidine is also used as a precursor for the synthesis of nucleotides necessary for DNA synthesis.

Thymidine also has medicinal uses. It is used as a medicine to treat certain types of cancer such as lymphomas and leukemias. Thymidine is part of drugs such as fluorouracil (5-FU), which is used to treat colon, breast and other cancers.

Thymidine is an important component of DNA and plays an important role in the life processes of cells. Its properties are widely used in medicine and scientific research. Understanding the role of thymidine in cellular processes helps improve the treatment of many diseases and advances science in the fields of genetics and molecular biology.

Discoveries made in the seventies of the last century brought revolutionary changes to the strategy for restoring human chromosomes. Scientific research into genetic structures has led to the identification of DNA strands. Robert Cohen was able to confirm the presence of four main nucleotides - guanine, adenine, thymine, cytosine and the so-called "fifth" - "thymine", the name of which was unknown until 1975. The advantage of the discovery of a new “nucleotide” was that it, like cytisine, could be used for biological purposes without prior chemical synthesis. These substances are highly resistant to acids and chemical reagents, but heating and treatment with caustic reagents in combination with other nucleides can destroy them. In 1948, a student of K. Müller made a discovery that helped reveal the secret of the fifth base of DNA: it was 2-thiouracil. In 1951, the two discoveries confirmed each other, and the total number of DNA bases could no longer be increased, but once they were linked to each other, it opened up the possibility of obtaining new DNA structures. This is how a biological basis appeared, which appeared as a result of solving the thioform puzzle and the name of which came 3 years later