Actinomycin (Noun)
Meaning
Any of various red antibiotics isolated from soil bacteria.
Classification
Nouns denoting man-made objects.
Examples
- Actinomycin is a type of antibiotic that has been used to treat various types of cancer due to its ability to inhibit RNA synthesis.
- The researchers isolated actinomycin from the soil bacteria Streptomyces and studied its potential as an anticancer agent.
- Actinomycin has been shown to be effective against certain types of tumors, but its use is limited due to its high toxicity.
- The discovery of actinomycin in the 1940s marked the beginning of a new era in cancer research and the development of antibiotics as anticancer agents.
- Actinomycin works by binding to DNA and preventing the transcription of RNA, which ultimately leads to the death of cancer cells.