The mitosenes are a class of

organic chemical In chemistry, organic compounds are generally any chemical compounds that contain carbon-hydrogen or carbon-carbon bonds. Due to carbon's ability to catenate (form chains with other carbon atoms), millions of organic compounds are known. The st ...

s based on a

quinone The quinones are a class of organic compounds that are formally "derived from aromatic compounds

uch as benzene or naphthalene Uch ( pa, ; ur, ), frequently referred to as Uch Sharīf ( pa, ; ur, ; ''"Noble Uch"''), is a historic city in the southern part of Pakistan's Punjab province. Uch may have been founded as Alexandria on the Indus, a town founded by Alexand ...

by conversion of an even number of –CH= groups into –C(=O)– groups with any necessary rearrangement of double ...

-containing three-ring structure related to the two-ring core of the

indolequinone Indolequinones are molecules which are based upon an indole but have two additional ketone groups ( quinone) attached to the ring structure. This simple indolequinone indole-5,6-quinone is produced during the ripening of some fruit. Other exam ...

s. They are derived from the

mitomycins The mitomycins are a family of aziridine-containing natural products isolated from '' Streptomyces caespitosus'' or '' Streptomyces lavendulae.'' They include mitomycin A, mitomycin B, and mitomycin C. When the name mitomycin occurs alone, it usual ...

by reduction and are the active

alkylating Alkylation is the transfer of an alkyl group from one molecule to another. The alkyl group may be transferred as an alkyl carbocation, a free radical, a carbanion, or a carbene (or their equivalents). Alkylating agents are reagents for effecting ...

agents responsible for the

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. ...

activity of the mitomycins.

References

{{organic-chem-stub Quinones DNA replication inhibitors Enones