Daunorubicin hydrochloride (CAS: 23541-50-6)

Safety Information 

Daunorubicin hydrochloride Usage And Synthesis

Daunorubicin or daunomycin is chemotherapeutic 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 leukemia (acute myeloid leukemia and acute

lymphocytic leukemia). It was initially isolated from Streptomyces peucetius.

A liposomal formulation of daunorubicin, liposomal daunorubicin.

Uses

It slows or stops the growth of cancer cells in the body. Treatment is usually performed together with other

chemotherapy medicine (such as cytarabine), and its administration depends on the type of tumor and the

degree of response.

In addition to its major use in treating AML, daunorubicin is also used to treat neuroblastoma. Daunorubicin has

been used with other chemotherapy agents to treat the blastic phase of chronic myelogenous leukemia.

Daunorubicin is also used as the starting material for semi-synthetic manufacturing of doxorubicin, epirubicin

and idarubicin.

Mechanism of action

Similar to Doxorubicin, Daunorubicin interacts with DNA by intercalation and inhibition of macromolecular

biosynthesis. This inhibits the progression of the enzyme topoisomerase II, which relaxes supercoils in DNA

for transcription. Daunorubicin stabilizes the topoisomerase II complex after it has broken the DNA chain for

replication, preventing the DNA double helix from being resealed and thereby stopping the process of replication.

On binding to DNA, daunomycin intercalates, with its daunosamine 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 a local unwinding angle of 8°, but negligible distortion of

helical conformation. It can also induce histone eviction from chromatin upon intercalation.