Antimalarial activities and subacute toxicity of RC-12, a 4-amino-substituted pyrocatechol.

RC-12 [1,2-dimethoxy-4-(bis-diethylaminoethyl)-amino-5-bromobenzene] was evaluated for prophylactic, radical curative, and suppressive activities against infections with Plasmodium cynomolgi and subacute toxicity in rhesus monkeys. Applied as a prophylactic agent, RC-12, administered in doses of 6.25 to 25.0 mg/kg daily throughout the incubation period, provided near-complete to complete protection against 10(5) to 10(6) times the minimum infective dose of sporozoites. Applied as a suppressive agent, daily doses of 100.0 mg of RC-12 per kg did not eradicate blood schizonts regularly; hence, the need for concomitant administration of a blood schizonticide, such as chloroquine, in assessments of radical curative activity. In such appraisals, daily doses of 6.25 to 25.0 mg of RC-12 per kg for 14 days, in combination with 2.5 mg of chloroquine per kg daily for 7 days, effected cure of 69 and 93% of established infections, respectively. The curative activity of RC-12 was related to the total dose and could be achieved with a regimen as brief as 4 days. With respect to outward expressions of toxicity, daily doses of 50.0 mg/kg or lower for 15 to 225 days evoked no reactions. Doses of 100.0 or 200.0 mg/kg, scheduled for 15 days, evoked convulsions and depression and were, respectively, lethal to 4 of 17 and 7 of 7 recipients. Doses of 25.0 mg/kg or lower evoked no discrete reactions. Doses of 50.0 mg/kg and higher evoked hepatomegaly, vacuolation of hepatocytes, and elevations of glutamic oxalacetic and glutamic pyruvic transferase activities in serum, reactions related in intensity to dose but not duration of dosage.