Skip to main content
An official website of the United States government
Government Funding Lapse
Because of a lapse in government funding, the information on this website may not be up to date, transactions submitted via the website may not be processed, and the agency may not be able to respond to inquiries until appropriations are enacted.

The NIH Clinical Center (the research hospital of NIH) is open. For more details about its operating status, please visit cc.nih.gov.

Updates regarding government operating status and resumption of normal operations can be found at opm.gov.

darinaparsin

A small-molecule organic arsenical with potential antineoplastic activity. Although the exact mechanism of action is unclear, darinaparsin, a highly toxic metabolic intermediate of inorganic arsenicals (iAs) that occurs in vivo, appears to generate volatile cytotoxic arsenic compounds when glutathione (GSH) concentrations are low. The arsenic compounds generated from darinaparsin disrupt mitochondrial bioenergetics, producing reactive oxygen species (ROS) and inducing ROS-mediated tumor cell apoptosis; in addition, this agent or its byproducts may initiate cell death by interrupting the G2/M phase of the cell cycle and may exhibit antiangiogenic effects. Compared to inorganic arsenic compounds such as arsenic trioxide (As2O3), darinaparsin appears to exhibit a wide therapeutic window.
Foreign brand name:SP-02L
Code name:ZIO-101
Chemical structure:S-dimethylarsino-glutathione
Search NCI's Drug Dictionary