Final Exam Flashcards
(225 cards)
How many cancer drugs are natural products or synthetic analogs of the natural products?
More than 60%.
What was the first step that the National Cancer Institute in the US performed regarding anticancer natural products?
Collect different plant materials, extract the biomass with methanol/dichloromethane (1:1), and then with water to give organic and aqueous extracts.
What was the second step that the National Cancer Institute in the US performed regarding anticancer natural products?
Assigned a number to each extract and then proceeded to screen for anti-cancer activity in cell culture models.
What was the third step that the National Cancer Institute in the US performed regarding anticancer natural products?
Bioassay guided purification of compounds that have anticancer activity. Compounds were further tested in animal models for their anticancer efficacy and dose tolerance.
What was the final step that the National Cancer Institute in the US performed regarding anticancer natural products?
Further modification and chemical synthetic procedures were applied to produce better derivatives that could be more bioavailable and less toxic.
What does taxol target?
Tubulin
How does taxol target tubulin?
Inhibits the depolarization of tubulin. This stabilizes the tube, so chromosomes cannot separate and thus cell division cannot occur.
What was taxol derived from?
From the bark of the Pacific yew tree.
What cancers is taxol used for?
Treatment of breast, lung, and ovarian cancer, as well as Kaposi’s sarcoma.
When was it discovered that the bark extract that taxol was derived from had cytotoxic activity? By who?
In 1964, by Dr. Wall and Dr. Wani.
What confirmed the initial anticancer activity of taxol?
Mouse melanoma model and animal models against MX-1 mammary, LX-1 lung, and CX-1 colon tumors.
What did Dr. Horwitz find about taxol cytotoxicity?
Found the mechanism of action the natural compound as she was able to demonstrate that taxol was able to bind to a cell’s microtubule assembly and inhibited cell division by stabilizing microtubules, preventing shrinkage, and thus blocking the segregation of chromosomes.
What was the challenge with the production of taxol?
Isolation of taxol from the pacific yew bark was difficult and synthesizing the compound was complex.
What did the slow isolation of taxol do to clinical trials?
Clinical development was slow.
How did clinical trials become possible for taxol?
When they extracted a precursor of taxol from the common yew taxus baccata, which was then converted by chemical synthesis to Taxol.
What was the precursor for Taxol?
10-deacetyl-baccatin lll
What was the challenge with the solubilization and delivery of taxol?
It was difficult to formulate Taxol into a delivery system acceptable for human use.
What was taxol soluble in?
It was soluble in 75% polyethylene glycol.
What was the issue with the solution of taxol in polyethylene glycol?
When the formula was used against B16 andP388 tumors, it produced poor results.
How was the solubilization of taxol fixed?
The drug was formulated in an ethanol, cremophor, and saline solution to a concentration of 0.3 to 0.6 mg/mL.
Where were preclinical toxic effects of taxol observed?
Mostly in tissues with a high cell turnover, such as hematopoietic, lymphatic, gastrointestinal, and reproductive tissues.
What was the promising treatment finding of taxol?
Researchers at John Hopkins reported a promising clinical finding that the Taxol treatment resulted in partial or complete responses in 30% of patients with advanced ovarian cancer.
When was taxol approved for cancer treatment?
December 1992
When was taxol approved for breast cancer treatment?
1994