Highly efficient and simultaneous production of thirteen taxanes from Taxus × media and mining of their new bioactivity

Abstract

Taxus serves as a primary natural source of paclitaxel, a valuable anticancer drug. Developing an efficient and synchronous separation and purification process for the abundant taxanes in Taxus, as well as mining their potential bioactive, can not only improve the production efficiency of paclitaxel but also further reduce the production cost. In this study, the abundant taxanes in the leaves and branches of Taxus × media, as well as the intermediates obtained during the purification process, were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in combination with high-resolution accurate-mass spectrometry (LC-HR-MS/MS). Subsequently, thirteen taxanes were successfully separated and purified to a purity of over 98% with a recovery rate of 61% in a pilot-scale production. Notably, the purity and recovery of paclitaxel were increased to over 99.2% and 78.2%, respectively. Interestingly, taxuspine M was identified for the first time to exhibit superior binding properties with poly ADP-ribose polymerase 1 (PARP1) and NRH:quinone oxidoreductase 2 (NQO2) proteins, which were highly associated with breast cancer, through virtual screening across the human disease therapeutic protein in the therapeutic target database (TTD). Moreover, taxuspine M demonstrated significant anti-proliferative ability against the Michigan Cancer Foundation-7 (MCF-7) cell line with an IC50 value of 195.5 nM, indicating its potential as an anticancer agent. This study provides an improved scalable process for the highly efficient and comprehensive utilization of plant-source pharmaceutical resources.