Skip to content
Bending the Curve Trial by Trial
?

Anthracyclines and anthracenedionesUsed in a few countriesNatural productNeeds review

Aclarubicin

Also known as Aclacinomycin A, Aclacinomycin

A naturally occurring anthracycline with three sugar units, from Streptomyces galilaeus, given by injection. A 2011 meta-analysis says the CAG regimen of cytarabine, aclarubicin and G-CSF is widely used in China and Japan for acute myeloid leukaemia.

From discovery to approval

  1. 1975 · Earliest report found

    A 1975 Journal of Antibiotics paper by Oki and colleagues, titled as describing the new antitumour antibiotics aclacinomycins A and B, is the earliest report found. A 1979 paper identifies the producing strain, MA144-M1, as Streptomyces galilaeus and names aclacinomycins A and B as its two major components.[2][3][4][1]

  2. No approval is recorded on this site.

How it works

A 1987 review of experimental studies reports that aclacinomycin strongly inhibits RNA synthesis in tumour cells. It describes lower cardiac toxicity than adriamycin and no mutagenicity. No regulator document or detailed mechanism study was read for this drug.[1]

Where it came from and why

The 1977 review says the collaboration set out to find new anthracycline antibiotics that might have lower cardiac toxicity and the same antitumour activity as adriamycin and daunomycin, whose use was limited by bone marrow suppression and cumulative cardiac toxicity.

Cancers

Worth knowing

  • The CAG meta-analysis reported cardiotoxicity in 2.3% and early death in 5.2% of cases, and noted the regimen has been widely used in China and Japan.[5]
  • A 1977 review by Oki says that, working with H. Umezawa and T. Takeuchi, he found 32 new anthracycline compounds in Streptomyces cultures and that aclacinomycin A, from strain MA144-M1, was in a phase II clinical study.[3]
  • The 1977 review traces anthracycline antibiotics from Streptomyces back to Brockmann's discovery of rhodomycins A and B in 1951.[3]

References

  1. Umezawa K, Kunimoto S, Takeuchi T. Experimental studies of new anthracyclines: aclacinomycin, THP-adriamycin and ditrisarubicins. Biomed Pharmacother. 1987;41(5):206-13. PubMed
  2. Oki T, Matsuzawa Y, Yoshimoto A, Numata K, Kitamura I. New antitumor antibiotics aclacinomycins A and B. J Antibiot (Tokyo). 1975;28(10):830-4. PubMedDOI
  3. Oki T. New anthracycline antibiotics. Jpn J Antibiot. 1977;30 Suppl:70-84. PubMed
  4. Oki T, Kitamura I, Yoshimoto A, Matsuzawa Y, Shibamoto N, Ogasawara T, et al. Antitumor anthracycline antibiotics, aclacinomycin A and analogues. I. Taxonomy, production, isolation and physicochemical properties. J Antibiot (Tokyo). 1979;32(8):791-800. PubMedDOI
  5. Wei G, Ni W, Chiao JW, Cai Z, Huang H, Liu D. A meta-analysis of CAG (cytarabine, aclarubicin, G-CSF) regimen for the treatment of 1029 patients with acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome. J Hematol Oncol. 2011;4:46. PubMedDOI