Affinity of adriamycin to phospholipids. A possible explanation for cardiac mitochondrial lesions.

Two thirds or more of adriamycin (ADM) is found in the hydrophilic phase when the drug is dissolved in the two-phase system of Folch. This distribution is changed dramatically by the presence of all the negatively charged phospholipids, which form an electrostatic complex with the drug in the lower lipophilic phase.The molar ratio of ADM to phospholipids in the lower phase is 2 to 1 with cardiolipin, which has 2 phosphate molecules, and 1 to 1 with phosphatidic acid which has only one. ADM is recovered from lipophilic phase by acidification. No complex was obtained with sulfatides or ADM-ADN complex.The relevance of these data to the pathogenesis of ADM induced cardiac mitochondrial lesions is discussed.