Daunorubicin or daunomycin (daunomycin cerubidine) is chemotherapy of the anthracycline family that is given as a treatment for some types of cancer. It is most commonly used to treat specific types of leukaemia (acute myeloid leukemia and acute lymphocytic leukemia). It was initially isolated from Streptomyces peucetius. CAS registry numbers are unique numerical identifiers for chemical compounds, polymers, biological sequences and alloys. ... The Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System is used for the classification of drugs. ... A chemical formula (also called molecular formula) is a concise way of expressing information about the atoms that constitute a particular chemical compound. ... The molecular mass of a substance (less accurately called molecular weight and abbreviated as MW) is the mass of one molecule of that substance, relative to the unified atomic mass unit u (equal to 1/12 the mass of one atom of carbon-12). ... In pharmacology, bioavailability is a term used to describe a pharmacokinetic property of drugs, namely, the fraction of a dose which reaches the systemic circulation. ... The elimination half-life of a drug (or any xenobiotic agent) refers to the timecourse necessary for the quantity of the xenobiotic agent in the body (or plasma concentration) to be reduced to half of its original level through various elimination processes. ... --212. ... The pregnancy category of a pharmaceutical agent is an assessment of the risk of fetal injury due to the pharmaceutical, if it is used as directed by the mother. ... The regulation of therapeutic goods, that is drugs and therapeutic devices, varies by jurisdiction. ... Chemotherapy is the use of chemical substances to treat disease. ... When normal cells are damaged or old they undergo apoptosis; cancer cells, however, avoid apoptosis. ... Leukemia (leukaemia in Commonwealth English) is a group of blood diseases characterized by malignancies (cancer) of the blood-forming tissues. ... Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), also known as acute myeloid leukemia, is a cancer of the myeloid line of white blood cells. ... Acute lymphocytic leukaemia (ALL), also known as acute lymphoblastic leukaemia is a cancer of the white blood cells, characterised by the overproduction and continuous multiplication of malignant and immature white blood cells (referred to as lymphoblasts) in the bone marrow. ...

Uses

It slows or stops the growth of cancer cells in the body. Treatment is usually together with other chemotherapy drugs (such as cytarabine), and its administration depends on the type of tumor and the degree of response. Cytarabine is a shortened form of cytosine arabinoside, a commonly used chemotherapy agent used mainly in the treatment of leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. ...

Daunorubicin is also used to treat neuroblastoma. Daunorubicin has been used with other chemotherapy agents to treat the blastic phase of chronic myelogenous leukemia. Neuroblastoma is the most common extracranial solid cancer in infancy and childhood. ... Chronic myelogenous leukemia (or CML) is a form of chronic leukemia characterised by increased production of myeloid cells in the bone marrow. ...

Mode of action

On binding to DNA, daunomycin intercalates, with its duanosamine residue directed toward the minor groove. It has the highest preference for two adjacent G/C base pairs flanked on the 5' side by an A/T base pair. Daunomycin effectively binds to every 3 base pairs and induces an local unwinding angle of 11^o, but negligible distortion of helical conformation. Intercalation induces structural distortions. ... In genetics, two nucleotides on opposite complementary DNA or RNA strands that are connected via hydrogen bonds are called a base pair (often abbreviated bp). ...

External links

• CancerBacup - Individual Drugs (http://www.cancerbacup.org.uk/Treatments/Chemotherapy/Individualdrugs/Daunorubicin)
• Mediline Plus - Drug Info (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/medmaster/a682289.html)