Effect of anticancer drugs on the release of tumour necrosis factor in vitro.

The anticancer drugs Adriamycin, bleomycin, vincristine, 4-hydroperoxycyclophosphamide, FK156 and FK565 and the immunosuppressive drug cyclosporin-A were tested for their effect on lipopolysaccharide-induced tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF) release from rat peritoneal exudate cells in vitro. FK565 resulted in a marked enhancement of TNF release when added to cultures at doses of 1 microgram/ml and 10 micrograms/ml. However, FK156, Adriamycin, bleomycin, 4-hydroperoxycyclophosphamide, vincristine and cyclosporin A did not affect the release of TNF under the same conditions. Puromycin inhibited the release of TNF in the same system at non-cytotoxic doses of 1 microgram/ml and 10 micrograms/ml.