Paclitaxel and It’s Derivatives as an Antic...

Paclitaxel and It’s Derivatives as an Anticancer Agents: a Review

Author Name : Khushmeen Kaur, Ramninder Kaur, Komalpreet Kaur, Varun Kumar

 ABSTRACT

From many years ago, the discovery of new active chemical substances has been obtaining from natural resources such as plants, animals, marine, and microorganisms. Since the 1980s, a total of the 174 new anticancer compounds from which 93 (53%) compounds were natural products that derived directly or based on them, had been approved for commercialization. Among these discoveries, the drug obtained from the yew tree (Taxus brevifolia) is known as Paclitaxel. Paclitaxel is a diterpenoid natural product that is known as anticancer agents. It is marketed under the brand name taxol.

The first time, Paclitaxel discovered in the 1960s, is a type of Taxane that belongs to a class of chemotherapeutic agents. Nowadays, Paclitaxel is the most widely used anticancer drug with a unique mechanism of action. It is a metotic inhibitor that prevents the disassemblies of tubulin into microtubules. Paclitaxel is used as a treatment for various cancer such as breast cancer, ovarian cancer.

A  low dose of Paclitaxel used to treat skin disorders, renal and hepatic fibrosis, inflammation, limb salvage and coronary artery restenosis. Biosynthesis of paclitaxel requires complicated and multiple steps, but in recent years, researchers determined different methods to produce good quality and increase the quantity of the Paclitaxel such as synthetic and semi-synthetic methods. Baccatin-III and 10 deacetyl baccatin III are the semisynthetic precursors used to produce Paclitaxel. These precursors are extracted from needles and twigs of the Yew trees are readily available in higher yield. The endophytic fungus is also to produce Paclitaxel.

Keywords: Anticancer drugs; derivatives of Paclitaxel; Natural products