Streptozotocin is similar enough to glucose to be transported into the cell by the glucose transport protein GLUT2, but is not recognized by the other glucose transporters. This explains its relative toxicity to beta cells, since these cells have relatively high levels of GLUT2. History
Streptozotocin was originally identified in the late 1950s as an antibiotic. The drug was discovered in a strain of the soil microbe Streptomyces achromogenes by scientists at the drug company Upjohn (now part of Pfizer) in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The soil sample in which the microbe turned up had been taken from Blue Rapids, Kansas, which can therefore be considered the birthplace of streptozotocin. Upjohn filed for patent protection for the drug in August 1958 and U.S. Patent 3,027,300 was granted in March 1962. In the mid-1960s, streptozotocin was found to be selectively toxic to the beta cells of the pancreatic islets, the cells that normally regulate blood glucose levels by producing the hormone insulin. This suggested the drugs use as an animal model of diabetes, and as a medical treatment for cancers of the beta cells. In the 1960s and 1970s, the National Cancer Institute investigated streptozotocins use in cancer chemotherapy. Upjohn filed for FDA approval of streptozotocin as a treatment for pancreatic islet cell cancer in November 1976, and approval was granted in July 1982. The drug was subsequently marketed as Zanosar.
The FDA granted the approval of Nulibry to Origin Biosciences, Inc., in February 2021. Society and culture
Legal status
On 21 July 2022, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) adopted a positive opinion, recommending the granting of a marketing authorization under exceptional circumstances for the medicinal product Nulibry, intended for the treatment of patients with molybdenum cofactor deficiency (MoCD) Type A. The applicant for this medicinal product is Comharsa Life Sciences Ltd. Fosdenopterin was approved for medical use in the European Union in September 2022. References
External links
"Fosdenopterin". Drug Information Portal. U.S. National Library of Medicine.