Introduction Paclitaxel and docetaxel were two epoch-making anticancer drugs and have been successfully used in chemotherapy for a variety of cancer types. In 2010, a new taxane, cabazitaxel, was approved by FDA for use in combination with prednisone for the treatment of metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer. Albumin-bound paclitaxel (nab™-paclitaxel; abraxane) nanodroplet formulation was another notable invention (FDA approval 2005 for refractory, metastatic, or relapsed breast cancer). Abraxane in combination with gemcitabine for the treatment of pancreatic cancer was approved by FDA in 2013. Accordingly, there have been a huge number of patent applications dealing with taxane anticancer agents in the last five years. Thus, it is a good time to review the progress in this area and find the next wave for new developments. Area covered This review article covers the patent literature from 2010 to early 2015 on various aspects of taxane-based chemotherapies and drug developments. Expert opinion Three FDA-approved taxane anticancer drugs will continue to expand their therapeutic applications, especially through drug combinations and new formulations. Inspired by the success of abraxane, new nano-formulations are emerging. Highly potent new-generation taxanes will play a key role in the development of efficacious tumor-targeted drug delivery systems.
Eradication of cancer cells while minimizing damage to healthy cells is a primary goal of cancer therapy. Highly selective drugs are urgently needed. Here we demonstrate a new prodrug strategy for selective cancer therapy that utilizes increased histone deacetylase (HDAC) and tumour-associated protease activities produced in malignant cancer cells. By coupling an acetylated lysine group to puromycin, a masked cytotoxic agent is created, which is serially activated by HDAC and an endogenous protease cathepsin L (CTSL) that remove the acetyl group first and then the unacetylated lysine group liberating puromycin. The agent selectively kills human cancer cell lines with high HDAC and CTSL activities. In vivo studies confirm tumour growth inhibition in prodrug-treated mice bearing human cancer xenografts. This cancer-selective cleavage of the masking group is a promising strategy for the next generation of anticancer drug development that could be applied to many other cytotoxic agents.
Labeling proteins with biotin is a widely used method to identify target proteins due to biotin’s strong binding affinity for streptavidin. Combined with alkyne-azide cycloaddition, which enables the coupling of probes to targeted proteins, biotin tags linked to an alkyne or azide have become a powerful tool for purification and analysis of proteins in proteomics. However, biotin requires harsh elution conditions to release the captured protein from the bead matrix. Use of these conditions reduces signal to noise and complicates the analysis. To improve affinity capture, cleavable linkers have been introduced. Here, we demonstrate the use of a cyclic acetal biotin probe that is prepared easily from commercially available starting materials, is stable to cell lysates, yet is cleaved under mildly acidic conditions, and which provides an aldehyde for further elaboration of the protein, if desired.
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