Keto-aldehydes and cell division.

Many problems are left open in this article. Its publication may be excused by the suffering cancer causes, which urges the researcher to publish as soon as he thinks he may have found a new trail, which also may be taken by others. What emerges clearly is that SH groups, with their specific reactivities, offer a hopeful target in the search for cancerostatic substances, among which the natural repressor of cell division may hold out the most promise. The glyoxal derivatives also have antiviral properties (7, 16) and may be in the center of a hitherto unknown system of equilibria which deserves a thorough study. The low molecular weight of the glyoxal derivative reported justifies the hope of an early clarification of its structure, as well as its synthesis (17).