Mol098376 768..778

Radiotherapy, a therapeutic modality of cancer treatment, nonselectively damages normal tissues as well as tumor tissues. The search is ongoing for therapeutic agents that selectively reduce radiation-induced normal tissue injury without reducing tumoricidal effect, thereby increasing the therapeutic ratioof radiation therapy. Our laboratory established 5-(4-methylpiperazin-1-yl)2-[2ʹ-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)-59benzimidazolyl] benzimidazole (DMA) as noncytotoxic radioprotector in mammalian cells. DMA showed an excellent radioprotection in mice at single nontoxic oral dose by a dose-reduction factor of 1.28. An oxygen radical absorbing capacity assay confirmed its freeradical quenching ability. Single bolus dose and 28-days of repeated administration of DMA in mice for toxicity studies determinedanLD50of.2000mg/kgbodyweight (bw) and225mg/kgbw, respectively, suggesting DMA is safe. Histopathology, biochemical parameters, and relative organ weight analysis revealed insignificant changes in the DMA-treated animals. The pharmacokinetic study of DMA at oral and intravenous doses showed its Cmax 5 1 hour, bioavailability of 8.84%, elimination half-life of 4 hours, and an enterohepatic recirculation. Biodistribution study in mice with Ehrlich ascites tumors showed that Tc-DMA achieved its highest concentration in 1 hour and was retained up to 4 hours in the lungs, liver, kidneys, and spleen, and in a low concentration in the tumor, a solicited property of any radioprotector to protect normal cells over cancerous cells. We observed that the single-dose treatment of tumor-bearing mice with DMA 2 hours before 8 Gy total body irradiation showed an impressive rescue of radiation-induced morbidity in terms of weight loss andmortality without a change in tumor response.