Yellow rain toxin a potential anticancer drug

Abstract

Over the past two months, the U.S. government has strongly implied that the Soviet Union, through its allies, may be using defenseless Southeast Asian villages as testing grounds for a new type of biologically produced chemical weapon that the villagers call rain (C&EN, Nov. 16, page 10). A component of yellow rain, the fungal toxin diacetoxyscirpenol (DAS), is being tested in the U.S. under the name of anguidine for its cancer-fighting potential. The experimental anticancer agent anguidine is the main metabolic product (and poison) of the plant parasitic fungus Fusarium equiseti , but it also has been isolated from culture filtrates of other molds. Anguidine is a scirpen-type sesquiterpenoid, and is closely related to fungal products nivalenol and T-2 toxin. Nivalenol and T-2 toxin also have been detected in foliage and water samples taken from Laotian and Kampuchean villages showered by yellow rain. Anguidine was the first toxin of the trichothecene family to become available ...