I Anticancer screening Potential tumor inhibitors may be designed or screened by quantum chemical calculations of the molecules' electronic structures, Dr. Robert L. Flurry, Jr., and Dr. J. C Howland of Louisiana State University, New Orleans, told the ACS national meeting in Washington, D.C., last week. A series of CNDO/2 calculations on tumor inhibitor camptothecin and on some of its inactive derivatives showed that the calculated dipole moment gave the best correlation with activity against tumors. The dipole moment may determine each compound's ability to penetrate cellular membranes, m
Natural plutonium Leukemia chemotherapy A new drug protocol developed at Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases, New York City, reduces toxic side effects of asparaginase and promises leukemia and leukosarcoma patients a better chance of remission with longer periods free of relapses. Patients are given prednisone, vincristine, daunomycin, and methotrexate for four weeks, cytosine arabinoside and thioguanine for four weeks, and asparaginase for four weeks. Doses of methotrexate and 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea are then followed by maintenance doses of all the drugs (except asparaginase) in five-day cycles. •
Marijuana brain damage ^-Tetrahydrocannabinol from marijuana fed daily to rats causes a decrease in brain protein, ribonucleic acid, and acetylcholinesterase, Yugal K. Luthra told the ACS meeting. Mr. Luthra and coworkers at Mason Research Institute, Worcester, Mass., and National Institute of Mental Health observed the effects in rats suffering from hyperactivity and convulsions after 28 to 91 days of oral treatment at high doses (50 mg./kg.). •
Citrate and algae Sodium citrate, a potential replacement for phosphate in detergents, can stimulate growth of algae in highly polluted water, Dr. Walter A. Glooschenko and James E. Moore of the Fisheries Research Board, Burlington, Ont, disclosed at the ACS meeting. Sodium citrate probably chelates metals such as zinc that would be toxic to algae if left free in solution. Dr. Glooschenko recommends intensive testing of the salt's effect on algae before widespread use of the compound, m
I
SCIENCE/ EDUCATION CONCENTRATES
Plutonium occurs in nature. Dr. Darleane Hoffmann and Francine Lawrence at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory have chemically isolated about 8 x 1015 grams of plutonium-224 from 85 kg. of bastnasite ore from the Mountain Pass, Calif., mine of Molybdenum Corp. of America. Jack Mewherter and Frank Rourke at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, Schenectady, N.Y., identified the isotope by mass spectrometry. Detection of this relatively short-lived isotope (80 million years) may indicate that synthesis of heavy elements was still occurring at the time of formation of the solar system, m
Gonorrhea drug Food contaminant test Vibrio parahaemolyticus, an organism that can cause gastroenteritis and is found in some seafood, can be isolated and identified in two or three days by a procedure developed by Dr. Carl Vanderzant and Dr. Ranzell Nickelson of Texas A&M University. In the new procedure, V. parahaemolyticus hydrolyzes starch in a growth medium to produce a characteristic halo around the colony. Suspect colonies are identified by reaction with a specific antibody stained with fluorescent dye. m
Fellowships suspended The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation will suspend its fellowship program for one year because of a lack of funds. There thus will be no fellowship competition this fall and no Woodrow Wilson Fellows during the 1972-73 school year. The foundation awarded about 1000 fellowships each year between 1957 and 1967 but only 200 to 300 per year since then. •
Upjohn's Trobicin (spectinomycin) is now being marketed in the U.S. as a specific treatment for gonorrhea (C&EN, June 21, page 48). A single dose of the antibiotic will cure 96% of cases of acute gonorrhea, according to Upjohn, including cases resistant to penicillin and other antibiotics. Individual hypersensitivity to Trobicin has not been a problem so far, the firm adds. •
Sickle cell tests Five new, rapid, inexpensive tests for the diagnosis of sickle cell anemia have been developed by scientists at Stanford University medical center and Blodgett Memorial Hospital, Grand Rapids, Mich., according to a report at last week's annual meeting of the American Association of Blood Banks in Chicago. The new tests, which may be performed in a few minutes at a cost of 2 to 8 cents per test, will permit mass screening of the black population across the country, the scientists say. m
SEPT. 20, 1971 C&EN
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