DNA-intercalators — the anthracyclines.

The anthracyclines are derivatives of rhodomycin B, a red-pigmented polyketide antibiotic, isolated in the 1950s from Gram-positive Streptomyces present in an Indian soil sample. Many microorganisms produce and secrete complex antibacterial and antifungal compounds into their surroundings to protect their life-sphere against potential invaders. After the discovery of the antitumor activity and chemistry of rhodomycin B, Farmitalia initiated a program to find new anticancer compounds produced by novel strains of microbes isolated from soil. In 1957, a colony of Streptomyces producing a red pigment was grown from a soil sample taken at Castel del Monte near the city of Andria in southeastern Italy. This microbe produced a substance named daunorubicin after a pre-Roman tribe in southeastern Italy; Di Marco demonstrated antitumor activity in 1963. At nearly the same time this compound was isolated by French researchers at Rhône Poulenc, who named it rubidomycin. Later on, it became clear that rubidomycin and daunomycin were identical and daunorubicin became the only name for this compound. In 1969, Arcamone and his co-workers succeeded in isolating and purifying doxorubicin (14-hydroxydaunomycin) from Streptomyces peucetius variety caesius, a mutant of the original Streptomyces strain found near the Adriatic Sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]