Mechlorethamine also known as nitrogen mustard is an antineoplastic agent which is used to treat Hodgkin's disease, lymphosarcoma, and chronic myelocytic and lymphocytic leukemia. It was formerly developed as a war gas but was then found to have antineoplastic properties. This drug is an analogue of mustard gas and was derived from the toxic gas' warfare research. Alkylating agents like mechlorethamine work by attaching alkyl groups to DNA bases (which prevents DNA synthesis and RNA transcription from affected DNA), damaging DNA by forming crosslinks intrastrand and interstrand (prevents DNA from being separated during synthesis and transcription) and the induction of mispairing of nucleotides leading to mutations. Mechlorethamine is cell cycle phase-nonspecific drug meaning that it targets cells during any phase of the cell cycle.

Mechlorethamine Pathway References