Tags: Chemical Compound, Chemical Substance.
The esperamicins are a class of bacteria-derived chromoprotein enediyne antibiotics of which esperamicin A1 is the most well studied. Esperamcin A1 and the related enediyne calicheamicin are the two most potent antitumor agents known. The esperamicins are extremely toxic DNA splicing compounds.Oxygen and oxygen scavengers have no significant effect on DNA breakage. The cleavage of DNA by esperamicin is greatly accelerated in the presence of thiol compounds.
