Adenosine kinase (AK) is the primary enzyme responsible for adenosine metabolism. Inhibition of AK effectively increases extracellular adenosine concentrations and represents an alternative approach to enhance the beneficial actions of adenosine as compared to direct-acting receptor agonists. Clitocine (3), isolated from the mushroom Clitocybe inversa, has been found to be a weak inhibitor of AK. We have prepared a number of analogues of ...
