Azacitidine
Indications
Azacitidine is used for:
For treatment of patients with the following French-American-British myelodysplastic syndrome subtypes: refractory anemia or refractory anemia with ringed sideroblasts (if accompanied by neutropenia or thrombocytopenia or requiring transfusions), refractory anemia with excess blasts, refractory anemia with excess blasts in transformation (now classified as acute myelogenous leukemia with multilineage dysplasia), and chronic myelomonocytic leukemia.
Adult Dose
Child Dose
Renal Dose
Administration
Contra Indications
Precautions
Pregnancy-Lactation
Interactions
Adverse Effects
Side effects of Azacitidine :
Mechanism of Action
Azacitidine (5-azacytidine) is a chemical analogue of the cytosine nucleoside used in DNA and RNA. Azacitidine may induce antineoplastic activity by inhibition of DNA methyltransferase at low doses and cytotoxicity through incorporation into RNA and DNA at high doses. Covalent binding to DNA methyltransferase results in hypomethylation of DNA and prevents DNA synthesis. As azacitidine is a ribonucleoside, it incoporates into RNA to a larger extent than into DNA. The incorporation into RNA leads to the dissembly of polyribosomes, defective methylation and acceptor function of transfer RNA, and inhibition of the production of protein, resulting in cell death.