5'-脱氧胸苷是用于抗病毒和抗癌研究的研究工具。与其他脱氧胸苷相比，已经使用5'-脱氧胸苷来研究人红细胞的进入机制。脱氧胸苷是DNA核苷T，与双链DNA中的脱氧腺苷（A）配对。在细胞生物学中，它被用来使S期细胞同步。作为DNA中4种核苷酸之一的一部分，它是一种天然存在的化合物，存在于所有活生物体和DNA病毒中。RNA具有尿苷（尿嘧啶与核糖相连）。尿嘧啶在化学上与胸腺嘧啶非常相似，后者是5-甲基尿嘧啶。由于胸腺嘧啶核苷酸是DNA而不是RNA的前体，因此常常省略前缀“脱氧”，即，脱氧胸腺嘧啶核苷通常仅被称为胸 5'-Deoxythymidine is a research tool for antiviral and anticancer studies. 5'-Deoxythymidine has been employed in studying the entry mechanism into human erythrocytes in comparison with other deoxythymidines. Deoxythymidine is the DNA nucleoside T, which pairs with deoxyadenosine (A) in double-stranded DNA. In cell biology it is employed to synchronize the cells in S phase. As part of one of the 4 nucleotides in DNA, it is a naturally occurring compound that exists in all living organisms and DNA viruses. RNA has uridine (uracil joined to ribose) instead. Uracil is chemically very similar to thymine, the latter being 5-methyluracil. Since thymine nucleotides are precursors of DNA, and not RNA, the prefix "deoxy" is often left out, i.e., deoxythymidine is often just called thymidine.