Role of Pyrimidine Depletion in the Mitochondrial Cardiotoxicity of Nucleoside Analogue Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors

JAIDS Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes: "Conclusions: Zidovudine (AZT) and zalcitabine (ddC) induce a mitochondrial cardiomyopathy, which is antagonized with uridine supplementation, implicating pyrimidine pool depletion in its pathogenesis. Pyrimidine pool replenishment may be exploited clinically because uridine is well tolerated."