This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Epstein, S. S. Articles by Mantel, N. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Epstein, S. S. Articles by Mantel, N.

On the Association between Photodynamic and Carcinogenic Activities in Polycylic Compounds^*

( Laboratories of Carcinogenesis, The Children's Cancer Research Foundation, and Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, at The Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; Carcinogenesis Studies and Biometry Branches, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland)

The photodynamic activities of 157 polycyclic compounds of wide structural range were determined, with the use of Paramecium caudatum. High photodynamic activity was largely confined to polycyclic compounds, either homocyclic or heterocyclic, with four or five fused rings. Significant absorption of light was shown to be prerequisite but not sufficient for high photodynamic activity. A significant statistical association between photodynamic activity and carcinogenicity was demonstrated. It was shown that compounds with high photodynamic activity had 4 times greater odds of being carcinogenic than compounds with low activity. However, the photodynamic assay cannot identify a particular polycyclic compound as being carcinogenic or noncarcinogenic.

^* Data on which this paper is based in part were presented at the VIIIth International Cancer Congress, July 22–28, 1962, at Moscow, U.S.S.R., and at the 47th Annual Meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, April 16–20, 1963, Atlantic City, New Jersey.

This investigation was supported in part by research grants grants # CY3335 and # C-6516 (to The Children's Cancer Research Foundation) from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Public Health Service.

Received 1/ 6/64.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. S. Epstein and F. B. Taylor Photosensitizing Compounds in Extracts of Drinking Water Science, October 14, 1966; 154(3746): 261 - 263. [Abstract] [PDF]