Alkylating antineoplastic agent

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An alkylating antineoplastic agent is an alkylating agent used in cancer treatment that attaches an alkyl group (CnH2n+1) to DNA.[1] The alkyl group is attached to the guanine base of DNA, at the number 7 nitrogen atom of the imidazole ring. Since cancer cells, in general, proliferate faster and with less error-correcting than healthy cells, cancer cells are more sensitive to DNA damage such as being alkylated. Alkylating agents are used to treat several cancers. However, they are also toxic to normal cells (cytotoxic), leading to damage, in particular in cells that divide frequently, as those in the gastrointestinal tract, bone marrow, testicles and ovaries, which can cause loss of fertility. Alkylating agents are also carcinogenic. Hyperthermia is especially effective at enhancing the effects of alkylating agents.[2]
Contents
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1 History 2 Agents acting nonspecifically 3 Agents requiring activation 4 Dialkylating agents, limpet attachment, and monoalkylating agents 5 Examples

o o o

5.1 Classical alkylating agents 5.2 Alkylating-like 5.3 Nonclassical

6 References 7 External links

[edit]History
Before their use in chemotherapy, alkylating agents were better known for their use as sulfur mustard, ("mustard gas") and related chemical weapons in World War I. The nitrogen mustards were the first alkylating agents used medically, as well as the first modern cancer chemotherapies. Goodman, Gilman, and others at Yale began studying nitrogen mustards at Yale in 1942, and, following the sometimes dramatic but highly variable responses of experimental tumors in mice to treatment, these agents were first tested in humans late that year. Use of methyl bis (B-chloroethyl)emine hydrochloride (mechlorethamine, mustine) and tris (Bchloroethy) amine hydrochloride for Hodgkin's disease lymphosarcoma, leukemia, and other malignancies resulted in striking but temporary dissolution of tumor masses. Because of secrecy surrounding the war gas

program, these results were not published until 1946. [3] These publications spurred rapid advancement in the previously non-existent field of cancer chemotherapy, and a wealth of new alkylating agents with therapeutic effect were discovered over the following two decades. [4] A common myth holds that Goodman and Gilman were prompted to study nitrogen mustards as a potential treatment for cancer following a 1943 incident in Bari, Italy, where survivors exposed to mustard gas became leukopenic. In fact, animal and human trials had begun the previous year, Gilman makes no mention of such an episode in his recounting of the early trials of nitrogen mustards effects of mustard gas had been known since the close of World War I.
[4] [5]

, and the marrow suppressing

[edit]Agents

acting nonspecifically

Some alkylating agents are active under conditions present in cells; and the same mechanism that makes them toxic allows them to be used as anti-cancer drugs. They stop tumor growth by crosslinking guanine nucleobases in DNA double-helix strands, directly attacking DNA. This makes the strands unable to uncoil and separate. As this is necessary in DNA replication, the cells can no longer divide. These drugs act nonspecifically.

[edit]Agents

requiring activation

Some of the substances require conversion into active substances in vivo (e.g., cyclophosphamide). Cyclophosphamide is one of the most potent immunosuppressive substances. In small dosages, it is very efficient in the therapy of systemic lupus erythematosus, autoimmune hemolytic anemias, Wegener's granulomatosis, and other autoimmune diseases. High dosages causepancytopenia and hemorrhagic cystitis.

[edit]Dialkylating

agents, limpet attachment, and monoalkylating agents

Dialkylating agents can react with two different 7-N-guanine residues, and, if these are in different strands of DNA, the result is cross-linkageof the DNA strands, which prevents uncoiling of the DNA double helix. If the two guanine residues are in the same strand, the result is calledlimpet attachment of the drug molecule to the DNA. Busulfan is an example of a dialkylating agent: it is the methanesulfonate diester of 1,4-butanediol. Methanesulfonate can be eliminated as a leaving group. Both ends of the molecule can be attacked by DNA bases, producing a butylene crosslink between two different bases. Monoalkylating agents can react only with one 7-N of guanine. Limpet attachment and monoalkylation do not prevent the separation of the two DNA strands of the double helix but do prevent vital DNA-processing enzymes from accessing the DNA. The final result is inhibition of cell growth or stimulation of apoptosis, cell suicide.

[edit]Examples

In the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System, alkylating agents are classified under L01A.

[edit]Classical

alkylating agents

Many of the agents are known as "Classical alkylating agents". These include true alkyl groups, and have been known for a longer time than some of the other alkylating agents. Examples include melphalan and chlorambucil.[6] The following three groups are almost always considered "classical".

Nitrogen mustards[7]

Cyclophosphamide Mechlorethamine or mustine (HN2) Uramustine or uracil mustard Melphalan Chlorambucil Ifosfamide

Nitrosoureas

Carmustine Lomustine Streptozocin

Alkyl sulfonates

Busulfan

Thiotepa and its analogues are usually considered classical, but can be considered nonclassical.

[edit]Alkylating-like
Platinum-based chemotherapeutic drugs (termed platinum analogues) act in a similar manner. These agents do not have an alkyl group, but nevertheless damage DNA.[8] They permanently coordinate to DNA to interfere with DNA repair, so they are sometimes described as "alkylating-like".

Platinum[7]

Cisplatin Carboplatin Nedaplatin Oxaliplatin Satraplatin

Triplatin tetranitrate

These agents also bind at N7 of guanine.

[edit]Nonclassical
Certain alkylating agents are sometimes described as "nonclassical". There is not a perfect consensus on which items are included in this category, but, in general, they include:

procarbazine[9] altretamine[10] Some sources explicitly exclude the tetrazines (dacarbazine, mitozolomide, temozolomide) from the nonclassical category.[11] However, other sources list dacarbazine as nonclassical,[12] and some include temozolomide.[13]

The platinum agents are also sometimes described as nonclassical.[14]

[edit]References

1. ^ "antineop". Retrieved 2009-01-24. 2. ^ Wiedemann GJ, Robins HI, Gutsche S, Mentzel M, Deeken M, Katschinski DM, Eleftheriadis S, Crah R, Weiss C, Storer B, Wagner T. (May 1996). "Ifosfamide, carboplatin and etoposide (ICE) combined with 41.8 degrees C whole body hyperthermia in patients with refractory sarcoma". European journal of cancer32A (5): 88892. PMID 9081372. 3. ^ Goodman LS, Wintrobe MM, Dameshek W, Goodman MJ, Gilman AZ, McLennan MT (1946). "Nitrogen mustard therapy.". JAMA 132: 126132. 4. ^
a b

Scott RB (1970). "Cancer chemotherapy--the first twenty-five years.". Br Med J. 4 (5730): 259

265.doi:10.1136/bmj.4.5730.259. PMID 4319950. 5. ^ Gilman A (1963). "The initial clinical trial of nitrogen mustard.". Am J Surg. 105: 5748. doi:10.1016/00029610(63)90232-0.PMID 13947966. 6. ^ McClean S, Costelloe C, Denny WA, Searcey M, Wakelin LP (June 1999). "Sequence selectivity, crosslinking efficiency and cytotoxicity of DNA-targeted 4-anilinoquinoline aniline mustards".Anticancer Drug Des. 14 (3): 187204. PMID 10500495. 7. ^
a b

Takimoto CH, Calvo E. "Principles of Oncologic Pharmacotherapy" in Pazdur R, Wagman LD,

Camphausen KA, Hoskins WJ (Eds) Cancer Management: A Multidisciplinary Approach. 11 ed. 2008.

8. ^ Cruet-Hennequart S, Glynn MT, Murillo LS, Coyne S, Carty MP (April 2008). "Enhanced DNA-PKmediated RPA2 hyperphosphorylation in DNA polymerase eta-deficient human cells treated with cisplatin and oxaliplatin". DNA Repair (Amst.) 7(4): 58296. doi:10.1016/j.dnarep.2007.12.012.PMID 18289945. 9. ^ Armand JP, Ribrag V, Harrousseau JL, Abrey L (June 2007)."Reappraisal of the use of procarbazine in the treatment of lymphomas and brain tumors". Ther Clin Risk Manag 3 (2): 213 24. doi:10.2147/tcrm.2007.3.2.213. PMID 18360630. 10. ^ Yasko, Joyce M.; Kirkwood, John M.; Lotze, Michael T. (1998). Current cancer therapeutics. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone. pp. 3. ISBN 0-443-06527-6. 11. ^ Schmit-Neuerburg, Klaus-Peter; Reiner Labitzke (2000). Manual of Cable Osteosyntheses: History, Technical Basis, Biomechanics of the Tension Band Principle, and Instructions for Operation. Berlin: Springer. pp. 166. ISBN 3-540-66508-0. 12. ^ Bailey, Christopher J.; Corner, Jessica (2001). Cancer nursing: care in context. Oxford: Blackwell Science. pp. 214. ISBN 0-632-03998-1. 13. ^ Kutner, Jean S; Gonzales, Ralph (2006). Current Practice Guidelines in Primary Care: 2007 (Current Practice Guidelines in Primary Care). McGraw-Hill Professional. pp. 118. ISBN 0-07-147781-0. 14. ^ Pizzo, Philip A.; Poplack, David G. (2006). Principles and practice of pediatric oncology . Hagerstown, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. pp. 313. ISBN 0-7817-5492-5.

[edit]External

links

University of Nebraska page on alkylating agent drugs MeSH Alkylating+antineoplastic+agents Cancer Management Handbook: Principles of Oncologic Pharmacotherapy