title: Diversity through semisynthesis: the chemistry and biological activity of semisynthetic epothilone derivatives.
abstract: Epothilones are myxobacterial natural products that inhibit human cancer cell growth through the stabilization of cellular microtubules (i.e., a "taxol-like" mechanism of action). They have proven to be highly productive lead structures for anticancer drug discovery, with at least seven epothilone-type agents having entered clinical trials in humans over the last several years. SAR studies on epothilones have included a large number of fully synthetic analogs and semisynthetic derivatives. Previous reviews on the chemistry and biology of epothilones have mostly focused on analogs that were obtained by de novo chemical synthesis. In contrast, the current review provides a comprehensive overview on the chemical transformations that have been investigated for the major epothilones A and B as starting materials, and it discusses the biological activity of the resulting products. Many semisynthetic epothilone derivatives have been found to exhibit potent effects on human cancer cell growth and several of these have been advanced to the stage of clinical development. This includes the epothilone B lactam ixabepilone (Ixempra(®), which has been approved by the FDA for the treatment of advanced and metastatic breast cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich, HCI H405, Wolfgang-Pauli-Str. 10, 8093, Zürich, Switzerland. karl-heinz.altmann@pharma.ethz.ch
authors.forename: Karl-Heinz
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Altmann
authors.forename: Fabienne Z
authors.initials: FZ
authors.lastname: Gaugaz
authors.forename: Raphael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schiess
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D001688:Biological Products / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D055808:Drug Discovery; D034261:Epothilones / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D050257:Tubulin Modulators / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D001688:Biological Products; D034261:Epothilones; D050257:Tubulin Modulators