Comparative study of the antitumor action between sodium 5,6-benzylidene-L-ascorbate and sodium ascorbate (minireview).

This review summarizes our comparative study of the antitumor action of sodium 5,6-benzylidene-L-ascorbate (SBA) and sodium ascorbate. Both SBA and ascorbate produced ascorbate radicals during decomposition, elevated oxidation potential and oxidized methionine to methionine sulfoxide, in the regular culture medium. They induced apoptotic cell death (characterized by internucleosomal DNA fragmentation) in human myelogenous leukemic cell lines, but killed most of other tumor cell lines by necrosis without induction of internucleosomal DNA fragmentation. The cytotoxic activity of SBA and ascorbate was significantly enhanced in the presence of copper and the stimulation effect of copper was reduced by a heavy metal antagonist. However, the cytotoxic activity of SBA was only slightly modified by iron, cysteine analog or catalase, in contrast to ascorbate, which was highly sensitive to all these agents. Furthermore, intravenous administration of SBA induced degeneration in chemically-induced hepatocellular carcinoma whereas ascorbate was inactive. These data suggest the differential mode of antitumor action between these two compounds.