Amsacrine
Chemical compound
Amsacrine (synonyms: m-AMSA, acridinyl anisidide) is an antineoplastic agent.
It has been used in acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
01Mechanism
Its planar fused ring system can intercalate into the DNA of tumor cells, thereby altering the major and minor groove proportions. These alterations to DNA structure inhibit both DNA replication and transcription by reducing association between the affected DNA and: DNA polymerase, RNA polymerase and transcription factors.
Amsacrine also expresses topoisomerase inhibitor activity, specifically inhibiting topoisomerase II. In contrast, the structurally similar o-AMSA, which differs only in the position of the methoxy substituent on the anilino ring, exhibits limited ability to poison topoisomerase II despite its intercalative properties. This suggests that intercalation alone is insufficient to stabilize topoisomerase II as a covalent complex on DNA.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Amsacrine”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Amsacrine.svg by Fvasconcellos, Public domain
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