• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.47-51
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• 2004

Drug resistance is one of the most significant impediments to successful chemotherapy of cancer. Multidrug-resistance Is characterized by decreased cellular sensitivity to anticancer agents due to the overexpression of P-glycoprotein. By using adriamycin-resistance CL02 cancer cells, we undertook the screening fur agents which were effective to multidrug-resistant cancer cells from strains of the species Sorangium cellulosum isolated in our laboratory. Sorangium cellulose, cellulose-degrading myxobacteria have recently proved to be a rich source of novel anticancer agents. One of the significant examples is the promising anticancer agent epothilone. JW 1006 is the first strain of Sorangium cellulosum which was selected by us for the isolation of a metabolite by a biological screening because of a high cytotoxic activity against the CL02 cancer cells. Cytotoxicity-guided chromatographic fractionation of the culture broth led to the Isolation of two active principles, disorazole $A_1$ and $A_2$. They showed potent cytotoxicity against CL02 cancer cells with $IC_{50}$ values in the picomolar range, and were as active against drug-resistant cancer cells CL02 and CP70 as against the corresponding sensitive cells.