Antitumoral cyclic peptide analogues of chlamydocin.

A series of cyclic tetrapeptides bearing the bioactive alkylating group on an epsilon-amino-lysyl function have been examined for their antitumoral activity on L1210 and P388 murine leukemia cell lines. One analogue belonging to the chlamydocin family and bearing a beta-chloroethylnitrosourea group was found to be potent at inhibiting L1210 cell proliferation and had a higher therapeutic index than the reference compound bis-beta-chloroethylnitrosourea (BCNU) on the in vivo P388-induced leukemia model.