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Anthracycline
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Anthracycline
Anthracyclines are a class of drugs used in cancer chemotherapy that are extracted from Streptomyces peucetius bacterium. These compounds are used to treat many cancers, including leukemias, lymphomas, breast, stomach, uterine, ovarian, bladder cancer, and lung cancers. The first anthracycline discovered was daunorubicin (trade name Daunomycin), which is produced naturally by Streptomyces peucetius, a species of Actinomycetota. Clinically the most important anthracyclines are doxorubicin, daunorubicin, epirubicin and idarubicin.
The anthracyclines are among the most effective anticancer treatments ever developed and are effective against more types of cancer than any other class of chemotherapeutic agents. Their main adverse effect is cardiotoxicity, which considerably limits their usefulness. Use of anthracyclines has also been shown to be significantly associated with cycle 1 severe or febrile neutropenia. Other adverse effects include vomiting.
The drugs act mainly by intercalating with DNA and interfering with DNA metabolism and RNA production. Cytotoxicity is primarily due to inhibition of topoisomerase II after the enzyme induces a break in DNA, preventing religation of the break and leading to cell death. The basic structure of anthracyclines is that of a tetracyclic molecule with an anthraquinone backbone connected to a sugar moiety by a glycosidic linkage. When taken up by a cell the four ring structure intercalates between DNA bases pairs while the sugar sits within the minor groove and interacts with adjacent base pairs.
Daunorubicin is a red pigmented drug which was discovered in the early 1960s. It was isolated from a strain of Streptomyces peucetius by A. Di Marco and coworkers, working for Farmitalia Research Laboratories in Italy who called it daunomycin. About the same time Dubost and coworkers in France also discovered the compound and named it rubidomycin. Daunorubicin was adopted as the international name. Initially it was seen to have activity against murine tumours and then in clinical trials it was found to be active against leukaemia and lymphomas.
Doxorubicin was isolated from a mutated variant of S. peucetius (var. caesius). It differs from daunorubicin only by the addition of a hydroxyl group at the carbon 14 position. This modification greatly changes the activity of the drug making it highly effective against a wide range of solid tumours, leukaemia and lymphomas. It is the standard by which novel anthracyclines are judged.
The first anthracyclines were so successful that thousands of analogues have been produced in attempts to find compounds with improved therapeutic applications. Only epirubicin and idarubicin have been adopted for worldwide use. Epirubicin has similar activity to doxorubicin, however has reduced cardiotoxic side effects. Idarubicin is a fat soluble variant of daunorubicin and is orally bioavailable.
Several groups of researchers focused on designing compounds that retained the polycyclic aromatic chromophore of the anthracyclines (favouring intercalation into DNA) and substituting the sugar residue with simple side chains. This led to the identification of the mitoxantrone which is classed as an anthracenedione compound and is used in the clinic for the management of various cancers. Disaccharide analogues have been shown to retain anticancer activity, and are being further investigated with respect to their mechanism of action.
Although it has been 50 years from the discovery of anthracyclines, and despite recent advances in the development of targeted therapies for cancers, around 32% of breast cancer patients, 57%-70% of elderly lymphoma patients and 50–60% of childhood cancer patients are treated with anthracyclines. Some cancers benefit from neoadjuvant anthracycline-based regimes, and these include triple negative breast cancers that do not respond well to targeted therapies due to the lack of available receptors that can be targeted. Compared to non-triple negative breast cancer patients, triple negative breast cancer patients have shown better response rate and higher pathological response rate with anthracycline use, an indicator used for predicting improved long-term outcomes.
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Anthracycline
Anthracyclines are a class of drugs used in cancer chemotherapy that are extracted from Streptomyces peucetius bacterium. These compounds are used to treat many cancers, including leukemias, lymphomas, breast, stomach, uterine, ovarian, bladder cancer, and lung cancers. The first anthracycline discovered was daunorubicin (trade name Daunomycin), which is produced naturally by Streptomyces peucetius, a species of Actinomycetota. Clinically the most important anthracyclines are doxorubicin, daunorubicin, epirubicin and idarubicin.
The anthracyclines are among the most effective anticancer treatments ever developed and are effective against more types of cancer than any other class of chemotherapeutic agents. Their main adverse effect is cardiotoxicity, which considerably limits their usefulness. Use of anthracyclines has also been shown to be significantly associated with cycle 1 severe or febrile neutropenia. Other adverse effects include vomiting.
The drugs act mainly by intercalating with DNA and interfering with DNA metabolism and RNA production. Cytotoxicity is primarily due to inhibition of topoisomerase II after the enzyme induces a break in DNA, preventing religation of the break and leading to cell death. The basic structure of anthracyclines is that of a tetracyclic molecule with an anthraquinone backbone connected to a sugar moiety by a glycosidic linkage. When taken up by a cell the four ring structure intercalates between DNA bases pairs while the sugar sits within the minor groove and interacts with adjacent base pairs.
Daunorubicin is a red pigmented drug which was discovered in the early 1960s. It was isolated from a strain of Streptomyces peucetius by A. Di Marco and coworkers, working for Farmitalia Research Laboratories in Italy who called it daunomycin. About the same time Dubost and coworkers in France also discovered the compound and named it rubidomycin. Daunorubicin was adopted as the international name. Initially it was seen to have activity against murine tumours and then in clinical trials it was found to be active against leukaemia and lymphomas.
Doxorubicin was isolated from a mutated variant of S. peucetius (var. caesius). It differs from daunorubicin only by the addition of a hydroxyl group at the carbon 14 position. This modification greatly changes the activity of the drug making it highly effective against a wide range of solid tumours, leukaemia and lymphomas. It is the standard by which novel anthracyclines are judged.
The first anthracyclines were so successful that thousands of analogues have been produced in attempts to find compounds with improved therapeutic applications. Only epirubicin and idarubicin have been adopted for worldwide use. Epirubicin has similar activity to doxorubicin, however has reduced cardiotoxic side effects. Idarubicin is a fat soluble variant of daunorubicin and is orally bioavailable.
Several groups of researchers focused on designing compounds that retained the polycyclic aromatic chromophore of the anthracyclines (favouring intercalation into DNA) and substituting the sugar residue with simple side chains. This led to the identification of the mitoxantrone which is classed as an anthracenedione compound and is used in the clinic for the management of various cancers. Disaccharide analogues have been shown to retain anticancer activity, and are being further investigated with respect to their mechanism of action.
Although it has been 50 years from the discovery of anthracyclines, and despite recent advances in the development of targeted therapies for cancers, around 32% of breast cancer patients, 57%-70% of elderly lymphoma patients and 50–60% of childhood cancer patients are treated with anthracyclines. Some cancers benefit from neoadjuvant anthracycline-based regimes, and these include triple negative breast cancers that do not respond well to targeted therapies due to the lack of available receptors that can be targeted. Compared to non-triple negative breast cancer patients, triple negative breast cancer patients have shown better response rate and higher pathological response rate with anthracycline use, an indicator used for predicting improved long-term outcomes.
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