Description

Bleomycin A2 is the primary bleomycin (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/bleomycin) species in bleomycin sulfate (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/bleomycin%20sulfate) , a mixture of the sulfate salts of several basic glycopeptide antineoplastic antibiotics isolated from Streptomyces verticillus. Bleomycin A2 forms complexes with iron (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/iron) that reduce molecular oxygen (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/molecular%20oxygen) to superoxide and hydroxyl (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/hydroxyl) radicals which cause single- and double-stranded breaks in DNA; these reactive oxygen species also induce lipid peroxidation, carbohydrate oxidation, and alterations in prostaglandin synthesis and degradation.