Polyacrylates of Metals Are a New Class of the Potential Antitumor Drugs

The results of preclinical study of the original antitumor drug aurumacryl (gold polyacrylate), which belongs to polyacrylates of metals (PAMs), a new class of compounds for use in oncology, are presented. PAMs have been studied as cytostatics for the first time in the N.M. Emanuel Institute of Biochemical Physics at the Russian Academy of Sciences. The strong antitumor and cytotoxic activity of aurumacryl has been revealed. Aurumacryl induced in vivo the inhibition of growth of the murine solid tumors, as well as the death of the human tumor cells in vitro. The proliferation kinetics of the surviving fraction of tumor cells also changed after drug treatment. These alterations were expressed as the accumulation of the main part of cells in the phase of the proliferative rest and in the strong decrease of the number of proliferative cells. These data may be evaluated as the evidence of the loss of the reproductive activity by the tumor cells after aurumacryl treatment. The distribution of the aurumacryl between the tumor and some organs (blood, kidneys, liver, lungs, spleen and brain) of mice with the solid tumor has been also studied. The results of our own investigations of aurumacryl are discussed in the context of the contemporary concepts about the gold complexes antitumor effect and mechanism of action of these compounds.