Puromycin dihydrochloride belongs to the aminonucleoside family of antibiotics and is isolated from Streptomyces alboniger. Since the partial structure of this antibiotic showed it to be a purine derivative, puromycin was assigned as its generic name. Puromycin is a broad spectrum antibiotic and antibacterial agent. It is active against Gram-positive microorganisms, less active against acid-fast bacilli, and weakly active against Gram-negative microorganisms. It acts very quickly and can kill 99% of the cells within 2 days. It also exhibits antitumor activity in studies on brain tumor cells. Puromycin is a protein synthesis inhibitor that causes premature chain termination by acting as an analog of the 3’-terminal end of aminoacyl-tRNA. It has been used to study transcriptional regulatory mechanisms that control the sequential and coordinate expression of genes during cell differentiation.

N-ethylmaleimide (NEM), a sulfhydryl reagent, functions as an oxidizing agent in biological and non-biological systems. It behaves as an oxidizing agent with an interacting site in the region QH2-cytochrome A of the respiratory chain. In addition was identified, that NEM can be a potential antidote against As2 O3 -mediated DNA damage in a glutathione-dependent manner.