Marinactan, antitumor polysaccharide produced by marine bacteria.

Extracellular polysaccharides of marine bacteria were screened for their antitumor activity against sarcoma-180 solid tumor in mice. An active polysaccharide was purified and named marinactan. The producing microorganism has a typical marine bacterial nature requiring sea water for growth and was identified as Flavobacterium uliginosum. Marinactan is a novel heteroglycan consisting of glucose, mannose and fucose in a ratio of approximately 7:2:1. Marinactan, 10-50 mg mg/kg daily for 10 days i.p., produced 70-90% inhibition of the growth of solid sarcoma 180. Complete regression of the tumor was observed in some treated mice. Its administrations before and after tumor transplantation showed almost the same inhibitory effect. Marinactan prolonged markedly the survival period of mice bearing ascites sarcoma 180.