“May all be happy, may all be healed, may all be at peace and may no one ever suffer."
Irinotecan inhibits the action of topoisomerase I. Irinotecan prevents religation of the DNA strand by binding to topoisomerase I-DNA complex. The formation of this ternary complex interferes with the moving replication fork, which induces replication arrest and lethal double-stranded breaks in DNA. As a result, DNA damage is not efficiently repaired and apoptosis (programmed cell death) occurs.