The ability of bacteria to synthesize a new cyclopyrophosphate correlates with their tolerance to redox-cycling drugs: on a crossroad of chemotherapy, environmental toxicology and immunobiochemical problems.

Many redox-cyclers were recently shown to induce, in some bacterial species, large-scale biosynthesis of a new 2-methylbutan-1,2,3,4-tetraol-2,4-cyclopyrophosphate believed to be involved in anti-stress reactions. In the present study Mycobacterium smegmatis, Micrococcus luteus and Brevibacterium ammoniagenes were shown to begin synthesis of the new cyclopyrophosphate when cultivated in a medium containing furacilin or furadonin (widely used nitrofuran antibacterial drugs) and to maintain close to normal growth rates, whereas Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli were inhibited by the drugs and were unable to synthesize the cyclopyrophosphate compound. Preferential binding of Mg2+ and Cd2+ with one or other phosphoryl groups of the cyclopyrophosphate, which was indicated by selective changes of 31P-NMR chemical shifts and intramolecular hydrogen bonding, is suggested as a reason for this selectivity.