On Antitumor Effect of Sarkomycin-Inh

Abstract

Sarkomycin is an antitumor substance produced by Streptomyces erythrochromogenes¹⁾, and the structure, 2-methylene-3-oxo-cyclopentanecarboxylic acid, has been determined by Hooper and others²⁾. Maeda and Kondō³⁾ studied the inactivation course of sarkomycin and determined the structure of inactivated products of sarkomycin. The anti tumor effects of sarkomycin have been described by Takeuchi and others⁴⁾.

Hara and others⁵⁾ studied the reaction of sarkomycin with isonicotinic acid hydrazide, and they found that a product constituting from two moles of sarkomycin and one mole of INH had both antitumor and antimicrobial activity. This active compound was named sarkomycin-INH. According to thes.e authors, the purified sarkomycin-INH, when compared with the standard sarkomycin, has the potency of 3mg units/mg.

In the point of its stable character, sarkomycin-INH is an interesting derivative. The present authors studied antitumor effects of this substance against Ehrlich carcinoma of mice and Yoshida rat sarcoma and also the anti-HeLa cell effect. These two experimental animal tumors and HeLa cell were sensitive to this substance and sarkomycin-INH exhibited a stronger antitumor activity against Yoshida rat sarcoma than sarkomycin.