2-Fluoroadenine

2-Fluoroadenine (2-FA) is a toxic adenine antimetabolite which can be used in laboratory biological research for counterselection of wildtype bacterial or eukaryotic (i.e. animals, yeast, plants, diatoms, brown algae ) APT (adenine phosphoribosyltransferase) genes. Therefore, knockouts or mutants for APT, which are resistant to 2-FA, can be selected.

2-Fluoroadenine is a critical intermediate for pharmaceutical drugs and can be synthesized within the lab from 2,6-diaminopurine, which is an inexpensive and readily available compound. In the cell, 2-Fluoroadenine is synthesized and exhibits a large range of antibacterial activity. 2-Fluoroadenine acts as an inhibitor of blood-platelet adhesion, and when combined with actinobolin, produces a greater combined effect of preventing or treating infections. In cancer treatments, 2-Fluoroadenine, has been used to treat head and neck cell carcinoma by the progressive removal of RNA and protein synthesis within tumor cells.