Nucleoside analogs and use thereof in therapeutic treatment

1 . A method of treating a subject having cancer of plasma cell origin or adenocarcinoma or a disease selected from the group consisting of Kaposi's Sarcoma (KS), multicentric Castleman's Disease (MCD), primary effusion lymphoma (PEL), diffuse large B-cell lymphomas, multiple myeloma, and plasmablastic lymphomas, the method comprising: (i) determining if the subject has an abnormally high level of expression of Adenosine Kinase (ADK) compared to cells or tissues of a healthy control subject; and (ii) if the subject is identified as having an abnormally high level of expression of ADK, administering to said subject an effective amount of a therapeutic compound, wherein the therapeutic compound has the following chemical structure:

wherein:

A 1 is O;

A 2 , A 3 , A 4 , and As are N;

Y is methyl or ethyl;

R 1 and R 2 are H;

X 1 and X 2 are independently selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, hydroxy, and acyloxy; and

X 3 is selected from the group consisting of hydroxy, phosphate, acyloxy, and benzyloxy (BnO);

wherein, optionally, X 1 and X 2 are taken together to form a 1,3-dioxolane ring optionally substituted with methyl groups at the 2-position;

or, optionally, X 2 and X 3 are taken together to form a cyclic monophosphate.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the subject has cancer of plasma cell origin or adenocarcinoma.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the cancer of plasma cell origin is selected from the group consisting of primary effusion lymphoma (PEL), multiple myeloma (MM) and plasmablastic lymphoma (PBL).

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the adenocarcinoma is selected from the group consisting of pulmonary adenocarcinoma, adenocarcinoma of the colon, and pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein subject has a disease selected from the group consisting of Kaposi's Sarcoma (KS), multicentric Castleman's Disease (MCD), and primary effusion lymphoma (PEL).

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the therapeutic compound has a chemical structure selected from any of the following:

and