NCIt related terms : Sodium camptothecin; Camptothecin, sodium salt;
NCIt definition : The sodium salt of camptothecin, an alkaloid isolated from the Chinese tree Camptotheca
acuminata, with antineoplastic activity. During the S phase of the cell cycle, camptothecin
selectively stabilizes topoisomerase I-DNA covalent complexes, thereby inhibiting
religation of topoisomerase I-mediated single-strand DNA breaks and producing potentially
lethal double-strand DNA breaks when encountered by the DNA replication machinery.
The sodium salt of camptothecin is more water-soluble than the parent molecule. (NCI04);
Semantic type(s)