Suramin as an archetypical compound in the development of growth factor antagonists for inhibition of genitourinary tumors.

Abstract

Suramin is one of the first synthetic chemotherapeutic agents to be discovered that was clinically effective against a human parasite. The road to its discovery began in 1899 when Paul Ehrlich was appointed director of the Institute for Experimental Therapy in Frankfurt, a time in which the German chemical industry was synthesizing many compounds, including a large number of synthetic dyes. One such dye, trypan red, was shown to cure trypanosomiasis in mice in 1904, the first time a parasitic infection was cured with a chemotherapeutic agent. Trypanosomes that excluded the dye were resistant [1].