Paclitaxel chemical structure
Find information on thousands of medical conditions and prescription drugs.

Taxol

Paclitaxel (Taxol®) is a drug used in the treatment of cancer. It was discovered at Research Triangle Institute (RTI) in 1967 when Dr. Monroe E. Wall and Dr. Mansukh C. Wani isolated the compound from the bark of the Pacific yew tree, Taxus brevifolia, and noted its antitumor activity in a broad range of rodent tumors. By 1970, the two scientists had determined the structure of paclitaxel, which is extremely complex. Paclitaxel has since become an effective tool of doctors who treat patients with lung, ovarian, breast cancer, and advanced forms of Kaposi's sarcoma (Saville et al 1995). It is sold under the tradename Taxol®. Together with docetaxel, it forms the drug category of the taxanes. more...

Home
Diseases
Medicines
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
Oxytetracycline
Phentermine
Tacrine
Tacrolimus
Tagamet
Talbutal
Talohexal
Talwin
Tambocor
Tamiflu
Tamoxifen
Tamsulosin
Tao
Tarka
Taurine
Taxol
Taxotere
Tazarotene
Tazobactam
Tazorac
Tegretol
Teicoplanin
Telmisartan
Temazepam
Temocillin
Temodar
Temodar
Temozolomide
Tenex
Teniposide
Tenoretic
Tenormin
Tenuate
Terazosin
Terbinafine
Terbutaline
Terconazole
Terfenadine
Teriparatide
Terlipressin
Tessalon
Testosterone
Tetrabenazine
Tetracaine
Tetracycline
Tetramethrin
Thalidomide
Theo-24
Theobid
Theochron
Theoclear
Theolair
Theophyl
Theophyl
Theostat 80
Theovent
Thiamine
Thiomersal
Thiopental sodium
Thioridazine
Thorazine
Thyroglobulin
Tiagabine
Tianeptine
Tiazac
Ticarcillin
Ticlopidine
Tikosyn
Tiletamine
Timolol
Timoptic
Tinidazole
Tioconazole
Tirapazamine
Tizanidine
TobraDex
Tobramycin
Tofranil
Tolazamide
Tolazoline
Tolbutamide
Tolcapone
Tolnaftate
Tolterodine
Tomoxetine
Topamax
Topicort
Topiramate
Tora
Toradol
Toremifene
Tracleer
Tramadol
Trandate
Tranexamic acid
Tranxene
Tranylcypromine
Trastuzumab
Trazodone
Trenbolone
Trental
Trest
Tretinoin
Triacetin
Triad
Triamcinolone
Triamcinolone hexacetonide
Triamterene
Triazolam
Triclabendazole
Triclosan
Tricor
Trifluoperazine
Trilafon
Trileptal
Trimetazidine
Trimethoprim
Trimipramine
Trimox
Triprolidine
Triptorelin
Tritec
Trizivir
Troglitazone
Tromantadine
Trovafloxacin
Tubocurarine chloride
Tussionex
Tylenol
Tyrosine
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

Paclitaxel is also used for the prevention of restenosis (recurrent narrowing) of coronary stents; locally delivered to the wall of the coronary artery, a paclitaxel coating limits the growth of neointima (scar tissue) within stents (Heldman et al 2001).

History

The history of paclitaxel begins with a 1958 National Cancer Institute study that commissioned Department of Agriculture botanists to collect samples of over 30,000 plants to test for anticancer properties. Arthur S. Barclay, one of those botanists, collected 15 lbs of twigs, needles, and bark from Pacific yew trees in a forest near Mount St. Helens. Months later, in 1963, Monroe E. Wall discovered that bark extract from the Pacific yew possessed antitumor qualities, beginning to reveal the tree's hidden treasure. Soon after, Wall and his colleague Mansukh C. Wani were busy isolating and purifying plant compounds for anticancer tests in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. In 1967 the team had isolated the active ingredient, announcing their findings at a American Chemical Society meeting in Miami Beach. Wall and Wani published their results, including the chemical structure, in a 1971 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The paper was noticed immediately by Robert A. Holton who was starting postdoctoral research at Stanford University in natural products synthesis. But, it would be several years before he dedicated his attention to synthesizing pacilitaxel at Florida State University, quelling an emerging environmental controversy; a 40-foot Pacific yew tree, which may have taken 200 years to reach that height, yields only a half gram of paclitaxel, but Holton's group perfected a four-step procedure to convert 10-deacetylbaccatin (a related compound in Pacific yew needles) into paclitaxel. In the late 1970s, Susan B. Horwitz, a molecular pharmacologist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, unraveled the key mystery of how paclitaxel works. Largely in part of an enormous research and development effort, starting in government facilities and later in commercial labs, paclitaxel quickly became an all-time best-selling pharmaceutical. Paclitaxel was brought to the market by Bristol-Myers Squibb in 1993 as Taxol®. Annual sales peaked in 2000, reaching US$1.6 billion.

Production

Unfortunately, the Pacific yew is one of the slowest growing trees in the world. Further, the treatment of just one patient requires the cutting down and processing of six 100-year old trees. This supply problem combined with the threat to the endangered spotted owl (Strix occidentalis) has prompted researchers to develop actinobacteria such as Streptomyces coelicolor or Amycolata autotrophica from which paclitaxel-like epothilone compounds can be obtained by fermentation. S. coelicolor produces epothilone A and epothilone B, while A. autotrophica produces epothilone D. Similarly, cultures of the fungus Nodulisporium sylviforme can be used to produce paclitaxel itself.

Read more at Wikipedia.org


[List your site here Free!]


Portion of plant enzyme may mimic taxol
From Agricultural Research, 3/1/05 by Steven C. Huber

Researchers interested in increasing plant cells' use of carbon for seed storage products like starch, oil, and protein have been studying sucrose synthase. This enzyme metabolizes sugar and delivers carbon for plant cell growth and other uses. As a tool, the scientists fashioned a synthetic peptide, called SS2, from a portion of the enzyme. They used SS2 to identify regions of sucrose synthase that bind to actin, a filamentous protein that's part of the cytoskeleton used by plant cells when dividing and elongating.

They found that SS2 caused actin filaments to clump together--or bundle--which stopped plant cells from dividing. Bundling is similar to how taxol checks the spread of some human cancer cells. A patent has been filed for SS2, and a licensing partner's being sought to investigate the peptide's potential medical applications. Steven C. Huber, USDA-ARS Photosynthesis Research Unit, Urbana, Illinois; phone (217) 265-0909, e-mail schuberl@uiuc.edu.

COPYRIGHT 2005 U.S. Government Printing Office
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group

Return to Taxol
Home Contact Resources Exchange Links ebay