Kitagawa M, Nemoto T, Seki S, Ito S, Kasuga T
Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan.
J Cancer Res Clin Oncol. 1993;119(8):470-4. doi: 10.1007/BF01215927.
Antimelanoma effects of 4-S-cysteaminylphenol (4-S-CAP), which is a newly synthesized melanin precursor, as a chemotherapeutic agent specific to malignant melanoma were determined in an in vivo system using mouse B16 melanoma. The intraperitoneal injection of 4-S-CAP induced a slight delay in the growth period of subcutaneous melanoma of C57BL/6 mice. Survival times of mice after treatment with 4-S-CAP were a little longer than those of control mice (P < 0.05), although all mice died from the local growth of tumours. The viable cell ratio of in vivo subcutaneous tumour cells reduced to 52.8% within 24 h after treatment with 4-S-CAP, but the ratio had recovered to the control level 72 h after treatment (> 90%). Similarly, the proliferating-cell-nuclear-antigen-positive cell ratio of melanotic melanoma had reduced 24 h after treatment and recovered within 72 h after treatment, while 4-S-CAP had no effect on amelanotic tumours. The formation of lung colonies by intravenous inoculation of malignant melanoma cells was compared between mice with intraperitoneal injection of 4-S-CAP and phosphate-buffered saline only. The 4-S-CAP-treated mice had significantly fewer lung colonies compared with the control mice (P < 0.01). The results indicate that the agent, 4-S-CAP, would have a therapeutic effect on malignant melanoma for a short time in vivo and therefore the agent can be effective against a small number of tumour cells, such as lung colonies, although it had little effect on the local tumours.
4-S-半胱氨酰苯酚（4-S-CAP）是一种新合成的黑色素前体，作为恶性黑色素瘤特异性化疗药物，其抗黑色素瘤作用在使用小鼠B16黑色素瘤的体内系统中得到测定。腹腔注射4-S-CAP可使C57BL/6小鼠皮下黑色素瘤的生长期略有延迟。4-S-CAP处理后小鼠的存活时间比对照小鼠略长（P<0.05），尽管所有小鼠均死于肿瘤的局部生长。4-S-CAP处理后24小时内，体内皮下肿瘤细胞的活细胞比例降至52.8%，但处理后72小时该比例已恢复至对照水平（>90%）。同样，黑色素瘤的增殖细胞核抗原阳性细胞比例在处理后24小时降低，并在处理后72小时内恢复，而4-S-CAP对无黑色素瘤无效。比较了腹腔注射4-S-CAP的小鼠和仅注射磷酸盐缓冲盐水的小鼠经静脉接种恶性黑色素瘤细胞后肺集落的形成情况。与对照小鼠相比，4-S-CAP处理的小鼠肺集落明显较少（P<0.01）。结果表明，4-S-CAP在体内短时间内对恶性黑色素瘤具有治疗作用，因此该药物可有效对抗少量肿瘤细胞，如肺集落，尽管它对局部肿瘤的作用很小。
