Preclinical Evaluation of Illudins as Anticancer Agents: Basis for Selective Cytotoxicity

Illudins are potent natural products derived from Omphalotus illudens and related fungi. The chemical structure of illudins differs from that of other conventional chemotherapeutic agents.While illudins are toxic to most tumorcells after prolonged exposure (≥ 48 hr), with shorter exposure times (≥2 hr), they show selective toxicity for human myelocytic leukemia and epidermoid, lung, ovarian, and breast carcinoma cells of various species of origin. The apparent histologic specificity of illudin S toxicity is based on an energy-dependent transport mechanism present in sensitive cells, but absent in cells relatively resistant to illudin S. For human myeloid leukemia HL60 cells, the Michaelis constant was 4.2 μM and the maximum velocity was 12.2 pmol/ minute per 10 million cells or 730 pmol/hour per 10 million cells. The energy-dependent transport mechanism was detected in other mammalian tumor cells. [J Natl Cancer Inst 82:1562–1565, 1990]