SHU 9119 is a potent human melanocortin 3 and 4 receptors (MC3/4R) antagonist and a partial MC5R agonist; with IC50 values of 0.23, 0.06, and 0.09 nM for human MC3R, MC4R and MC5R, respectively.

Ribothymidine is an endogenous methylated nucleoside found in human fluids; methylated purine bases are present in higher amounts in tumor-bearing patients compared to healthy controls.DNA hypermethylation is a common finding in malignant cells and has been explored as a therapeutic target for hypomethylating agents.

2'-Deoxyuridine 5'-monophosphate (dUMP) is used by the enzyme thymidylate synthetase (TS) for the de novo production of dTMP. dUMP is used as the reference substrate in studies of dUMP analogues in potential chemotherapy applications.