C-1027 or Lidamycin is an

antitumor Cancer can be treated by surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormonal therapy, targeted therapy (including immunotherapy such as monoclonal antibody therapy) and synthetic lethality, most commonly as a series of separate treatments (e.g. ...

antibiotic An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the treatment and prevention of ...

consisting of a complex of an

enediyne In organic chemistry, enediynes are organic compounds containing two triple bonds and one double bond. Enediynes are most notable for their limited use as antitumor antibiotics (known as enediyne Chemotherapy, anticancer antibiotics). They are ...

chromophore A chromophore is the part of a molecule responsible for its color. The color that is seen by our eyes is the one not absorbed by the reflecting object within a certain wavelength spectrum of visible light. The chromophore is a region in the molec ...

and an apoprotein. It shows antibiotic activity against most

Gram-positive bacteria In bacteriology, gram-positive bacteria are bacteria that give a positive result in the Gram stain test, which is traditionally used to quickly classify bacteria into two broad categories according to their type of cell wall. Gram-positive bact ...

. It is one of the most potent

cytotoxic Cytotoxicity is the quality of being toxic to cells. Examples of toxic agents are an immune cell or some types of venom, e.g. from the puff adder (''Bitis arietans'') or brown recluse spider (''Loxosceles reclusa''). Cell physiology Treating cells ...

molecules known, due to its induction of a higher ratio of DNA double-strand breaks than single-strand breaks. C-1027's chromophore contains a nine-membered enediyne that is responsible for most of the molecule's

biological activity In pharmacology, biological activity or pharmacological activity describes the beneficial or adverse effects of a drug on living matter. When a drug is a complex chemical mixture, this activity is exerted by the substance's active ingredient or ...

. Unlike other enediynes, this molecule contains no triggering mechanism. It is already primed to undergo the cycloaromatization reaction without external activation to produce the toxic 1,4-benzenoid

diradical In chemistry, a diradical is a molecular species with two electrons occupying molecular orbitals (MOs) which are degenerate. The term "diradical" is mainly used to describe organic compounds, where most diradicals are extremely reactive and in ...

species. C-1027 can induce oxygen-independent interstrand DNA crosslinks in addition to the oxygen-dependent single- and double-stranded DNA breaks typically generated by other enediynes. This unique oxygen-independent mechanism suggests that C-1027 may be effective against hypoxic tumor cells. C-1027 mechanism

C-1027 shows promise as an anticancer drug and is currently undergoing

phase II clinical trial The phases of clinical research are the stages in which scientists conduct experiments with a health intervention to obtain sufficient evidence for a process considered effective as a medical treatment. For drug development, the clinical phases ...

s in China, with a 30% success rate. It can induce

apoptosis Apoptosis (from grc, ἀπόπτωσις, apóptōsis, 'falling off') is a form of programmed cell death that occurs in multicellular organisms. Biochemical events lead to characteristic cell changes (morphology) and death. These changes incl ...

in many cancer cells and recent studies have indicated that it induces unusual DNA damage responses to double-strand breaks, including altering cell cycle progression and inducing chromosomal aberrations.

References

Antibiotics Experimental cancer drugs Enediynes Nine-membered rings Vinylidene compounds {{oncology-stub