Nature 185, 190 - 191 (16 January 1960); doi:10.1038/185190a0

Anti-tumour Activities of Copper Chelates

KAZUHIKO TAKAMIYA^*

Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tokyo, Tokyo. June 6.
^*Present address: Yoshimura Oil Chem. Co., Ltd., Toyonaka City, Osaka, Japan.

CHELATING agents have been shown to interfere with the utilization of metals by micro-organisms, robbing cells of their necessary metals¹. Retardation of growth of a tumour (sarcoma 37) by the administration of two chelating agents, dipyridyl and O-phenanthroline, was observed by Leiter et al. ². Now, -ketoglutaric acid oxime has been found to form its copper, iron, or nickel chelate at the physiological pH, and its antitumour activity in vitro was observed by the stained cell count method³.

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