In vitro cytotoxicity and differential cellular sensitivity of derivatives of diamino acids. I. N1-methyl, N1-allyl, N1-(2-chloroethyl) and N1-propargyl ureas.

The in vitro cytotoxicity and differential cellular sensitivity of a series of new N1-methyl, N1-allyl, N1-2-chloroethyl and N1-propargyl urea derivatives of diamino acids were determined in the National Cancer Institute's primary antitumor drug screen. The compounds tested showed an in vitro anticancer activity similar to commercialized nitrosoureas such as CCNU, BCNU, MeCCNU, chlorozotocin, streptozotocin and PCNU. The alkylating moiety of the ureas seems to play a role in the general selectivity of our compounds. The N1-methyl and N1-2-chloroethyl urea derivatives are more selective for central nervous system cell lines and the N1-allyl urea derivatives are more selective for lung cancer cell lines. The N1-propargyl ureas did not show any particular selectivity in the 60 human cell lines tested.