Pingyangmycin (also known as bleomycin A₅) 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. ...

glycopeptide antibiotic Glycopeptide antibiotics are a class of drugs of microbial origin that are composed of glycosylated cyclic or polycyclic nonribosomal peptides. Significant glycopeptide antibiotics include the anti-infective antibiotics vancomycin, teicoplani ...

belonging to the

bleomycin -13- (1''H''-imidazol-5-yl)methyl9-hydroxy-5- 1''R'')-1-hydroxyethyl8,10-dimethyl-4,7,12,15-tetraoxo-3,6,11,14-tetraazapentadec-1-yl}-2,4'-bi-1,3-thiazol-4-yl)carbonyl]amino}propyl)(dimethyl)sulfonium , chemical_formula = , C=55 , H=84 , N=1 ...

family, which is produced by ''Streptomyces verticillus'' var.'' pingyangensis n.sp.'', a Subspecies, variety of ''

Streptomyces verticillus ''Streptomyces verticillus'' is a species of Gram-positive bacteria in the genus ''Streptomyces''. Whilst screening fermentation broths of this species for bioactivity in the early 1960s, Hamao Umezawa and colleagues at the Institute of Microbi ...

''. It was discovered in 1969 at

Pingyang County Pingyang County (, Wenzhounese:''ben yi'') is a county in the prefecture-level city of Wenzhou, located along the southern coast of Zhejiang province, China. There are two main cities with many surrounding villages in Pingyang. The two main settl ...

of Zhejiang Province in China, and was brought into clinical use in 1978. In China, pingyangmycin has largely superseded bleomycin A₂ (commonly known as "bleomycin"), since according to Chinese sources it is more effective, costs less, is easier to get, can treat a larger variety of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

s (such as

breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a r ...

and liver cancer) and causes less lung injury. Though pingyangmycin and bleomycin can each cause

pulmonary fibrosis Pulmonary fibrosis is a condition in which the lungs become scarred over time. Symptoms include shortness of breath, a dry cough, feeling tired, weight loss, and nail clubbing. Complications may include pulmonary hypertension, respiratory failu ...

, pingyangmycin's most serious

side effect In medicine, a side effect is an effect, whether therapeutic or adverse, that is secondary to the one intended; although the term is predominantly employed to describe adverse effects, it can also apply to beneficial, but unintended, consequence ...

- which it does not share with bleomycin - is anaphylactic shock, which is rare, but may happen even in a low dose, and can be fatal. In addition, it causes a higher incidence of

fever Fever, also referred to as pyrexia, is defined as having a temperature above the normal range due to an increase in the body's temperature set point. There is not a single agreed-upon upper limit for normal temperature with sources using val ...

than bleomycin; the occurrence of this complication in patients is between 20 and 50%.

References

{{reflist Glycopeptide antibiotics DNA replication inhibitors