Taxol resembling compounds

TAXOL, SEMISYNTHETIC ANALOGUES AND TAXOL RESEMBLING COMPOUNDS... 

More recently, additional 2H "I J REDOR measurements on new PTX derivatives bound to MT provided three new interatomic distances that helped to define more precisely the bound conformation of PTX [87], The two PTX analogues labeled with fluorine and deuterium were designed to determine the three key distances based on the measurement of 2II— "I distances, as indicated in Fig. 9 (compounds 4 and 5). These interatomic distances rule out the polar and nonpolar conformers and further support the T-taxol conformation (Tablel). The polar conformation is rejected on the basis of distance IV, as the 4.5 A is much shorter than the > 8 A determined by REDOR. The nonpolar conformation can be ruled out on the basis of distances I and II, that are too short in the nonpolar conformer compared to the experimental ones (1.8 and 3.6 A short). Besides, bridged taxanes resembling the nonpolar conformation displayed no activity in the tubulin assembly assay [88], PTX-NY closely matches the REDOR distances. Nevertheless, it is discarded as the bioactive form of PTX due to its poor fit to the EC density [87],... 

Taxotere is the trade name for the synthetic anticancer drug docetaxel, whose structure closely resembles the naturally occurring compound taxol, which is isolated from the Pacific yew tree (Section 5.5). 

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