Cororubicin, a new anthracycline antibiotic generating active oxygen in tumor cells.

In the course of our screening for antitumor antibiotics which show biological activities by generating active oxygen in tumor cells. Micromonospora sp. JY16 was found to produce a new anthracycline antibiotic designated cororubicin. The structure of cororubicin was elucidated as shown in Fig. 5 on the basis of NMR spectral analysis. Cororubicin generated superoxide radicals in tumor cells and showed cytotoxicity, which was reduced by addition of an antioxidative agent, dithiothreitol (DTT).