Therapeutic activity of pretazettine, a narcissus alkaloid on Rauscher leukemia: comparison with tazettine and streptonigrin.

The therapeutic activity of narcissus alkaloid pretazettine HC1 (PTZ) on established Rauscher leukemia has been demonstrated and compared with the isomer tazettine (TZ) and an antibiotic, streptonigrin (SN). PTZ and SN showed remarkable prolongation effect on the life span of the leukemic mice and the antiviral activity has been confirmed in mouse 3T3 cells infected with Rauscher virus. TZ showed no significant activity in the leukemic mice and was inhibitory to the virus growth in the cells at much higher doses than PTZ. It is suggested that the stereochemical rearrangement from PTZ to TZ inactivates the biological activity of PTZ.