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AQ4N: a new approach to hypoxia-activated cancer chemotherapy
L H Patterson, S R McKeown
British Journal of Cancer · 2000 · Review
Abstract
Preclinical studies demonstrate that in vivo AQ4N enhances the anti-tumour effects of radiation and chemotherapeutic agents with a dose-modifying factor of approximately 2.0. With careful scheduling no, or very little, additional normal tissue toxicity should be observed. AQ4N is a bioreductive prodrug of a potent, stable, reduction product which binds non-covalently to DNA, facilitating antitumour activity in both hypoxic and proximate oxic tumour cells. AQ4N is clearly different in both its mechanism of action and potential bystander effect compared to previously identified bioreductive drugs. In particular AQ4N is the only bioreductive prodrug topoisomerase II inhibitor to enter clinical trials. Targeting this enzyme, which is crucial to cell division, may help sensitize tumours to repeated (fractionated) courses of radiotherapy. This is because in principle, the bioreduction product of AQ4N can inhibit the topoisomerase activity of hypoxic cells as they attempt to re-enter the cell cycle.
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Cited by papers we hold 5
- Enamine N‑Oxides: Synthesis and Application to Hypoxia-Responsive Prodrugs and Imaging Agents · 2021Not checked
- Multi‐Functional Liposome: A Powerful Theranostic Nano‐Platform Enhancing Photodynamic Therapy · 2021No notice
- Glioma stem cells and their roles within the hypoxic tumor microenvironment · 2021No notice
- A bioreducible N-oxide-based probe for photoacoustic imaging of hypoxia · 2017No notice
- Targeting the hypoxic fraction of tumours using hypoxia-activated prodrugs · 2016No notice
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