Suppression of adjuvant arthritis by a new cytotoxic compound, rubidomycin.

A vigorous search continues for drugs capable of alleviating those connective tissue diseases which are mediated by immunological mechanisms. The experimental disorder caused in rats by the injection of Freund's complete adjuvant or of mycobacteria suspended in oil has been used extensively to test compounds for this purpose. Adjuvant disease, of which polyarthritis is a prominent feature, is highly reproducible and is believed to be the result of a delayed hypersensitivity reaction against antigen(s) associated with the peptide-glyco-lipides of the wax D fraction of the mycobacteria or of the nocardia (Bonhomme, 1967; Pearson, Wood, and Tanaka, 1968). This paper reports a study of adjuvant disease under treatment with the new cytotoxic drug, Rubidomycin. Rubidomycin (Fig. 1), an anthracycline derivative with antibiotic properties (Dubc Ninet, Pinnert, Preud'homme, a is known to possess cytotoxic ac