[Comparison of the antitumor, immunodepressive and toxic properties of carminomycin-albumin complexes differing in carminomycin content].

Bovine serum albumin (BSA) and carminomycin, an anthracycline antibiotic, were subjected to conjugation with glutaraldehyde and their complexes with various contents of the antibiotic were prepared. The molar ratios of carminomycin and BSA were 8:1, 4:1, and 2:1. The antitumor effect of the preparations was studied on the models of mouse transplantable lymphosarcoma LIO equal 1 and ascitic forms of mouse lymphadenosis NK/Ly in vivo and in vitro. Their immunodepressant effect was evaluated from the decrease in the hemagglutinin titers in the mice immunized with sheep red blood cells. It was shown that when the toxicity of the complexes was the same, their antitumor and immunodepressant activities were different. The therapeutic activity of carminomycin in the four- and eight-substituted complexes was much higher than that of carminomycin alone. It is suggested that the differences in the activity of the complexes were connected with differences in their pharmacokinetics. It was found that the chemotherapeutic properties of the complexes may have changed by variation of the number of the cytostatic residues in the albumin molecule. The findings indicate that the whole complex molecule interacts with the malignant cell and not carminomycin preliminarily detached from it.