| Cancer is one of the most serious diseases of the world, leading to one of eight deaths. Although the medical advancements have contributed greatly to the decline of other diseases, treatments for cancer have remained only modestly effective. Traditional chemotherapeutics such as Taxol and Taxotere generally lack specificity, and repeated administration often leads to multi-drug resistance (MDR). To increase the efficacy and specificity of drugs, both the synthesis and evaluation of lead compounds and the development of drug delivery system are equally important.;SB-T-1214 and three novel taxanes, SB-T-12301 and two of its analogues, were synthesized by the standard Ojima-Holton coupling protocol using the corresponding β-lactam and 7,10-dimethylated-10-DAB III and C-2 meta-methyl or fluorobenzoyl 7,10-dimethylated-10-DAB III. The β-lactam was obtained via two well-established synthetic routes: Staudinger [2+2] cycloaddition followed by enzymatic resolution protocol and the chiral ester enolate-imine cyclocondensation.;In addition, tumor-targeting taxane-based drug conjugate was synthesized by using biotin as the tumor-targeting module and a self-immolative disulfide linker, which can be cleaved in cancer cells due to high concentration of glutathione. Biotin plays a critical role in many biological processes. It is greedily taken up by tumor cells through a process of receptor-mediated endocytosis (RME) to meet its need of fast growth and propagation. The receptors of biotin are highly overexpressed on the surface of tumor cells and making them a good target for tumor-targeting drug design. |
