A blood diagnostic reported a lethal level of cyanide in his blood, but the body did not display any classic symptoms of cyanide poisoning, and no link to cyanide could be found in Uroojs social circle. The diagnostic method used was the Conway diffusion method, prone to false positives with artifacts of heart attack and kidney failure. Autumn Marie Klein (20 April 2013), a prominent 41-year-old neuroscientist and physician, died from cyanide poisoning. Kleins husband, Robert J. Ferrante, also a prominent neuroscientist who used cyanide in his research, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison for her death. Robert Ferrante is appealing his conviction. Mirna Salihin died in hospital on 6 January 2016, after drinking a Vietnamese iced coffee at a cafe in a shopping mall in Jakarta. Police reports claim that cyanide poisoning was the most likely cause of her death. Jolly Thomas of Kozhikode, Kerala, India, was arrested in 2019 for the murder of 6 family members. Murders took place over 14-year period and each victim ate a meal prepared by the killer. The murders were allegedly motivated by wanting control of the family finances and property. Mei Xiang Li of Brooklyn, NY, collapsed and died in April 2017, with cyanide later reported to be in her blood. However, Mei never exhibited symptoms of cyanide poisoning and no link to cyanide could be found in her life. Warfare or terrorism
In 1988, between 3,200 and 5,000 people died in the Halabja massacre owing to unknown chemical nerve agents.
Lurbinectedin, sold under the brand name Zepzelca, is a medication used for the treatment of small cell lung cancer.The most common side effects include leukopenia, lymphopenia, fatigue, anemia, neutropenia, increased creatinine, increased alanine aminotransferase, increased glucose, thrombocytopenia, nausea, decreased appetite, musculoskeletal pain, decreased albumin, constipation, dyspnea, decreased sodium, increased aspartate aminotransferase, vomiting, cough, decreased magnesium and diarrhea.Lurbinectedin is a synthetic tetrahydropyrrolo [4,3,2-de]quinolin-8(1H)-one alkaloid analogue with potential antineoplastic activity. Lurbinectedin covalently binds to residues lying in the minor groove of DNA, which may result in delayed progression through S phase, cell cycle arrest in the G2/M phase and cell death.Lurbinectedin was approved for medical use in the United States in June 2020. Medical uses
Lurbinectedin is indicated for the treatment of adults with metastatic small cell lung cancer (SCLC) with disease progression on or after platinum-based chemotherapy. Structure
Lurbinectedin is structurally similar to trabectedin, although the tetrahydroisoquinoline present in trabectedin is replaced with a tetrahydro β-carboline which enables lurbinectedin to exhibit increased antitumor activity compared with trabectedin. Synthesis
Synthesis of lurbinectedin starts from small, common starting materials that require twenty-six individual steps to produce the drug with overall yield of 1.6%. Mechanism of action
According to PharmaMar, lurbinectedin inhibits the active transcription of the encoding genes. This has two consequences. It promotes tumor cell death and normalizes the tumor microenvironment. Active transcription is the process by which there are specific signal where information contained in the DNA sequence is transferred to an RNA molecule. This activity depends on the activity of an enzyme called RNA polymerase II.