Anthracycline antitumour agents

Abstract

A review of physicochemical and analytical properties of anthracycline antitumour agents is presented. The following subjects are discussed: protolytic equilibria, partition and partition coefficients, self-association, adsorptive properties, metal complexation, spectroscopy and chromatography. Furthermore, the stability of anthracyclines in solutions, in pharmaceutical preparations and in biological media is discussed.

Simultaneous determination of cytosine arabinoside, daunorubicin and etoposide in human plasma

“…Storage for 12 h at 4 • C increased the degree of haemolysis to such an extent, that the separated plasma was visually different from the plasma obtained with a shorter storage time, in concert with previous reports [27]. It has been reported that anthracyclines are unstable in whole blood, because they enter the cells and become a substrate for aldo-keto reductase enzymes [28]. The maximum storage/transport time was set to 4 h at 4 • C, in order to avoid uncertainties associated with haemolysis and possible enzymatic degradation.…”

Physical Biology in Cancer. 3. The role of cell glycocalyx in vascular transport of circulating tumor cells

“…Our group recently developed an approach to deliver doxorubicin-containing E-selectin-conjugated nanoparticles to flowing tumor cells (78, 79). Doxorubicin, an adriamyacin anthracycline antibiotic that is utilized as a chemotherapeutic agent, can induce tumor cell death by DNA intercalation, inhibition of topoisomerase II, and formation of free radicals (7, 89, 135). Under physiological shear stresses, tumor cells rapidly bound to E-selectin-conjugated nanoparticles, as confocal microscopy revealed fluorescent nanoparticles decorating the tumor cell surface (79).…”

Quantitative liquid chromatographic analysis of anthracyclines in biological fluids

“…The aminosugar has basic properties (pKa about 7.5), while the two hydroquinone groups are acidic (pKa's about 9.5 and 10) [3,4].…”

“…Anthracyclines require great care in handling. Firstly, they adsorb to a variety of materials such as glass and polystyrene [3,18]. Polypropylene is recommended [19].…”