Concentrations Of Taxol Research Articles

Bryostatin I inhibits growth of breast cancer cells through the inhibition of synuclein-A expression

<p class="Abstract">The present study was aimed to investigate the effect of bryostatin I on the expression of synuclein-A in breast cancer cells. Western blot analysis showed a significant (p<0.005) reduction in the expression of synuclein-A from a concentration of 20 µM in H3922 cells. The inhibitory effect of bryostatin I on synuclein-A expression was further confirmed by the treatment of H3922 cells with known synuclein-A inhibitor, cytokine oncostatin M. Bryostatin I treatment of H3922 cells also significantly increased their sensitivity to the taxol. Incubation of the cells with 25 µM concentration of bryostatin I followed by treatment with 0.5 μM concentration of taxol induced apoptosis in 89% cells compared to 9% cells in the taxol alone treated cultures. Treatment of the H3922 cells with bryostatin I at 25 µM concentration led to a significant increase in the activation of histone H1 protein. The results from MTT assay showed a significant decrease in the cell viability from 10 µM concentration of bryostatin I. Thus, bryostatin I inhibits the growth of breast cancer cells through inhibition of synuclein-A expression and can be used for breast cancer treatment.</p><p><strong>Video Clip</strong></p><p><a href="https://youtube.com/v/VzeWcEMjrJA">Cell viability assay:</a> 5 min 14 sec </p>

Induction of neural differentiation in rat C6 glioma cells with taxol.

Glioblastoma is a common and aggressive type of primary brain tumor. Several anticancer drugs affect GBM (glioblastoma multiforme) cells on cell growth and morphology. Taxol is one of the widely used antineoplastic drugs against many types of solid tumors, such as breast, ovarian, and prostate cancers. However, the effect of taxol on GBM cells remains unclear and requires further investigation. Survival rate of C6 glioma cells under different taxol concentrations was quantified. To clarify the differentiation patterns of rat C6 glioma cells under taxol challenge, survived glioma cells were characterized by immunocytochemical, molecular biological, and cell biological approaches. After taxol treatment, not only cell death but also morphological changes, including cell elongation, cellular processes thinning, irregular shapes, and fragmented nucleation or micronuclei, occurred in the survived C6 cells. Neural differentiation markers NFL (for neurons), β III-tubulin (for neurons), GFAP (for astrocytes), and CNPase (for oligodendrocytes) were detected in the taxol-treated C6 cells. Quantitative analysis suggested a significant increase in the percentage of neural differentiated cells. The results exhibited that taxol may trigger neural differentiation in C6 glioma cells. Increased expression of neural differentiation markers in C6 cells after taxol treatment suggest that some anticancer drugs could be applied to elimination of the malignant cancer cells as well as changing proliferation and differentiation status of tumor cells.

Silencing of Taxol-Sensitizer Genes in Cancer Cells: Lack of Sensitization Effects.

A previous genome-wide screening analysis identified a panel of genes that sensitize the human non-small-cell lung carcinoma cell line NCI-H1155 to taxol. However, whether the identified genes sensitize other cancer cells to taxol has not been examined. Here, we silenced the taxol-sensitizer genes identified (acrbp, atp6v0d2, fgd4, hs6st2, psma6, and tubgcp2) in nine other cancer cell types (including lung, cervical, ovarian, and hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines) that showed reduced cell viability in the presence of a sub-lethal concentration of taxol. Surprisingly, none of the genes studied increased sensitivity to taxol in the tested panel of cell lines. As observed in H1155 cells, SKOV3 cells displayed induction of five of the six genes studied in response to a cell killing dose of taxol. The other cell types were much less responsive to taxol. Notably, four of the five inducible taxol-sensitizer genes tested (acrbp, atp6v0d2, psma6, and tubgcp2) were upregulated in a taxol-resistant ovarian cancer cell line. These results indicate that the previously identified taxol-sensitizer loci are not conserved genetic targets involved in inhibiting cell proliferation in response to taxol. Our findings also suggest that regulation of taxol-sensitizer genes by taxol may be critical for acquired cell resistance to the drug.

The Determination of Young's Modulus for Microtubules Stabilized with Taxol and Analysis of Vibrational Modes

We present here the effects of Taxol, a cancer drug, on the intracellular mechanisms associated with dynamic instability of microtubules. Since Taxol affects the stability of microtubules, the general process of microtubule polymerization and depolymerization will be studied closely throughout this research project. By analyzing the dynamic instability of microtubules, the effects of Taxol on the microtubules can be used to elucidate the complex functioning of Taxol within the cell. The observations and discoveries of the research can have revolutionary effects in the fields of life science and medicine.The short-term goal of this project involves analysis of the thermal fluctuations of a single Taxol-stabilized microtubule. From our measurement of the elastic properties for Taxol-stabilized microtubules we can gain insight on vibrational modes of the microtubules. We propose that the vibrational modes of microtubules will vary based on the Taxol concentration at which they are grown and diluted. Then, by comparing the vibrational modes to the resonant frequency of the Taxol-stabilized microtubules, we will relate the dynamic instability of the microtubules to the change in vibrational mode. Therefore, the ultimate goal of the research is to acquire more knowledge about the function of Taxol in order to discover more effective cancer treatment methods. These findings will elucidate the confounding enigma that plagues humanity (cancer) and will lead to further advancements in cancer therapy research. Based on current findings, the microtubules grown with higher Taxol concentrations have lower Young's Modulus values.

Genomic Instability in Fanconi Anemia Results from a Combination of Chromosome Mis-Segregation in Mitosis and Unresolved Interphase DNA Damage

Fanconi anemia (FA) is a complex genetic disorder characterized by bone marrow failure, multiple congenital anomalies, and genomic instability resulting in predisposition to cancer. Disruption of the FA signaling network impairs multiple genome-housekeeping processes, including DNA damage recognition and repair in interphase, DNA replication as well as high-fidelity chromosome segregation during mitosis. Recent data published by several groups, including our work (J Clin Invest 2013; 123: 3839-3847), implicated FA signaling in the control of several cell division events essential for chromosomal stability, including the spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC), centrosome maintenance, resolution of ultrafine anaphase bridges and cytokinesis. Understanding the mechanistic origins of chromosomal instability leading to carcinogenesis and bone marrow failure has important scientific and clinical implications. However, the relative contribution of the interphase and mitotic events leading to genomic instability in Fanconi anemia has not been systematically evaluated.In this work, we dissected the origins and mechanistic significance of chromosomal instability in Fanconi anemia ex vivo and in vivo. We employed the cytochalasin micronucleus assay to quantify the patterns of spontaneous and chemotherapy-induced genomic lesions in FA-A patient-derived primary fibroblasts and Fancc-/- mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs). In this assay, dividing cells are treated with cytochalasin to inhibit cytokinesis and generate binucleated daughter cells. The presence of micronuclei in the resulting cells is indicative of genomic instability caused by either interphase DNA damage or chromosome mis-segregation. Centromere-negative micronuclei (CNMs) represent chromosomal fragments due to unresolved ds-DNA damage. Centromere-positive micronuclei (CPMs) result from whole-chromosome mis-segregation during mitosis. The frequency of both CPMs and CNMs was significantly increased in FA-deficient human and murine cells compared to gene-corrected isogenic control cells. These results indicate that genomic instability in FA is caused by a combination of interphase DNA damage and disordered mitosis. We confirmed the biological significance of these findings by showing that FA patient cells are hypersensitive to low concentrations of taxol (a spindle checkpoint-activating chemotherapeutic) similarly to mitomycin C (a cross-linking agent). Finally, we found increased frequency of micronuclei in Fancc-/- murine red blood cells compared to age-matched wild-type mice, which indicates that spontaneous chromosome mis-segregation occurs in FA-deficient bone marrow in vivo.Our study supports the emerging model of the FA family of proteins as holistic guardians of the genome during interphase and mitosis (see figure based on F1000Prime Rep. 2014; 6: 23, modified). This model furthers our understanding of genomic instability in Fanconi anemia and FA-deficient cancers, and opens new inroads towards targeted therapeutic interventions in these diseases. [Display omitted] DisclosuresNo relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Effect of Nitric Oxide on the Secondary Metabolites of <i>Taxus chinensis</i> var. <i>mairei</i> under UV-B Exposure

In this paper, the effect of nitric oxide (NO) on the secondary metabolites of Taxus chinensis var. mairei under elevated UV-B radiation was studied. The 5-year-old seedlings were used as test materials. The sodium nitroprusside (SNP) was as the NO donor and Carboxy-PTIO potassium salt (cPTIO) as the NO scavenger. The results showed that the SNP, UV, UV-B+SNP treatments significantly increased the contents of photosynthetic pigments (p<0.05). The contents of chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, carotenoid and total chlorophyll exhibited CK < cPTIO < UV-B+cPTIO < UV-B < SNP < UV-B+SNP. SNP, cPTIO, UV-B, UV-B+SNP and UV-B+cPTIO significantly increased the concentrations of flavonoids, condensed tannins, total phenolics and taxol (p<0.05). Spraying SNP and cPTIO had significant effect on the taxol concentration (p<0.05). The concentrations of flavonoids, condensed tannins, total phenolics and taxol reached the maximum under the UV-B+cPTIO treatment. Spraying different concentrations of SNP or cPTIO might affect the NO content in plants, and then impact on the secondary metabolism, which mechanism needs further investigation.

Abstract 762: Prevention and reversion of multidrug resistance (MDR) in cancer by NSC23925

Abstract The major limitation to the success of chemotherapy in cancer is the development of multidrug resistance (MDR). Preventing the emergence of MDR during chemotherapy treatment has been a high priority of clinical and investigational oncology, but remains an elusive goal. NSC23925 has recently been identified as a novel and potent MDR reversal agent. However, whether NSC23925 can prevent the development of MDR in cancer is unknown. Therefore, this study was to evaluate the effects of NSC23925 on prevention and reversion of MDR. Human osteosarcoma cell line U-2OS and Saos were exposed to increasing concentrations of taxol alone or in combination with NSC23925 for 6 months. The results showed that cells selected with increasing concentrations of taxol alone developed MDR with resistance to taxol and other Pgp substrates, while cells cultured with taxol-NSC23925 simultaneously prevented the development of MDR and cells remained sensitive to chemotherapeutic agents. Taxol selected resistant cells showed high expression and activity of drug transporter P-glycoprotein (Pgp), whereas taxol-NSC23925 combination treatment prevented the expression of Pgp. Our findings suggest that NSC23925 may prevent the development of MDR by specifically preventing the overexpression of Pgp. Moreover, NSC23925 can reverse MDR in drug resistant cells by modulating Pgp activity. Given the significant incidence of MDR in cancer and the lack of effective agents for prevention and revision of MDR, NSC23925 and derivatives hold the potential to improve the outcome of cancer patients with poor prognosis due to drug resistance. Citation Format: Xiaoqian Yang, Francis Hornicek, Zhenfeng Duan. Prevention and reversion of multidrug resistance (MDR) in cancer by NSC23925. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 762. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-762

Inhibition of microtubule dynamics affects podosome belt formation during osteoclast induction.

Osteoclast is the only cell that can degrade bone tissue in vivo. Recent studies have shown the important role of cytoskeleton dynamics in osteolysis and the formation of podosome belt in osteoclasts. This process is regulated by the dynamic microtubule (MT) network. We treated osteoclast precursor cells Raw264.7 with low concentration of nocodazole (10nM) and antineoplastic drug taxol (10nM) to block MT turnover, and used end binding protein 1 fused to GFP to track the movement of microtubules in induced osteoclasts. We show that low concentrations of nocodazole and taxol interfere with the formation of podosome belt, and reduce TRAP activity of induced osteoclasts. These results suggest that the effect of taxol on MT dynamics may be used clinically to reduce osteoclast activity and potentially prevent development of osteoporosis and other metabolic bone diseases.

Sensitizing the Therapeutic Efficacy of Taxol with Shikonin in Human Breast Cancer Cells

Shikonin, a small-molecule natural product which inhibits the activity of pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2), has been studied as an anti-cancer drug candidate in human cancer models. Here, our results demonstrate that shikonin is able to sensitize human breast cancer cells to chemotherapy by paclitaxel (taxol). Human breast adenocarcinoma MBA-MD-231 cells, which have higher levels of PKM2 expression and activity compared with MCF-7 cells, were selected to study further. The concentrations of shikonin and taxol were first selected at which they did not significantly induce cytotoxicity when treated alone, whereas the combination induced apoptosis. Surprisingly, PKM2 activity was decreased by shikonin, but not by the combination treatment. To identify the potential targets of this combination, human phospho-kinase antibody array analysis was performed and results indicated that the combination treatment inhibited the activation of ERK, Akt, and p70S6 kinases, which are known to contribute to breast cancer progression. Finally, how the combination affects breast cancer cell growth in vivo was tested using a xenograft tumor model. The results indicated that shikonin plus taxol prolonged animal survival and reduced tumor size than the vehicle treatment group. In summary, our results suggest that shikonin has a potential as an adjuvant for breast cancer therapy.

Protein digestion priority is independent of protein abundances

the expense of percentage time in catastrophe (Fig. 1e), apparent at the 3.3 nM concentration and above. At 1.0 Hz, percentage time in growth increases with Taxol concentration at the expense of percentage time in catastrophe but not pause (Fig. 1e), becoming statistically significant at the 10.0 nM level. The same treatment (indeed, the same data) acquired at different rates leads to opposing conclusions owing to artifacts introduced at slow acquisition rates. Alternative microtubule tracking methods such as laminar wholemicrotubule tracking show results agreeing with those from 4.0-Hz data3,4. These techniques capture the microtubule end position during all phases but are limited to isolated plus-ends near the cell periphery5,6. To avoid the introduction of artifacts in plus-end fluorescent-comet tracking, acquisitions of image stacks for microtubule plus-end dynamics analysis should be performed at the highest frame rate possible.

Trametenolic acid B reverses multidrug resistance in breast cancer cells through regulating the expression level of P-glycoprotein.

Trametenolic acid B (TAB) is the main active composition of Trametes lactinea (Berk.) Pat which possesses antitumor activities. There was no report its antitumor effect through regulating P-glycoprotein (P-gp) so far, due toP-gp over expression is one of the most important mechanisms contributing to the multiple drug resistance phenotype. The present aim was to investigate the effects of TAB on P-gp in multidrug-resistant cells;Paclitaxel-resistant cell line MDA-MB-231/Taxol was established by stepwise exposure for 10 months.MDA-MB-231 cells and MDA-MB-231/Taxol cells were treated with TAB, and their growth was evaluated using MTT assays. Paclitaxel accumulation in the cells was analyzed by high performance liquid chromatogram(HPLC). The activity of P-gp was detected by intracellular accumulation of rhodamine 123 (Rho123), and the protein expression of P-gp was evaluated using western blot. Results indicated that the IC50 of MDA-MB-231/Taxol to paclitaxel (Taxol) was 33 times higher than that of nature MDA-MB-231. TAB increased the intracellular concentration of Taxol and inhibited the activity of P-gp and suppressed the expression of P-gp in MDA-MB-231/Taxol cells. Our present results showed that TAB could reverse Taxol resistance in MDA-MB-231/Taxol cells,mainly inhibiting the activity of P-gp and down-regulating the expression level of P-gp, and then enhancing the accumulation of chemotherapy agents.

Automation of 3D Cell Culture Using Chemically Defined Hydrogels

Drug development relies on high-throughput screening involving cell-based assays. Most of the assays are still based on cells grown in monolayer rather than in three-dimensional (3D) formats, although cells behave more in vivo-like in 3D. To exemplify the adoption of 3D techniques in drug development, this project investigated the automation of a hydrogel-based 3D cell culture system using a liquid-handling robot. The hydrogel technology used offers high flexibility of gel design due to a modular composition of a polymer network and bioactive components. The cell inert degradation of the gel at the end of the culture period guaranteed the harmless isolation of live cells for further downstream processing. Human colon carcinoma cells HCT-116 were encapsulated and grown in these dextran-based hydrogels, thereby forming 3D multicellular spheroids. Viability and DNA content of the cells were shown to be similar in automated and manually produced hydrogels. Furthermore, cell treatment with toxic Taxol concentrations (100 nM) had the same effect on HCT-116 cell viability in manually and automated hydrogel preparations. Finally, a fully automated dose-response curve with the reference compound Taxol showed the potential of this hydrogel-based 3D cell culture system in advanced drug development.

TAXOL INDUCES CELL DEATH WITH CYTOPLASM VACUOLIZATION IN PARAPTOSIS-LIKE BUT NOT ONCOSIS FASHION IN ASTC-a-1 CELLS

Recently, we found that high concentration of taxol (70 μM) induced cell death with cytoplasm vacuolization, the typical characteristic of both paraptosis and oncosis, in human lung carcinoma (ASTC-a-1) cells. This report was designed to further determine the form of taxol-induced cell death with cytoplasm vacuolization. It is generally considered that the cytoplasm vacuolization in oncosis due to the swelling of endoplasmic reticulum (ER), mitochondria, lysosomes and nuclei occurs after the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm). However, flow cytometry (FCM) analysis showed that taxol-induced cytoplasm vacuolization preceded the loss of ΔΨm. Moreover, taxol treatment did not induce the collapse of microtubule, the typical characteristic of oncosis. These data demonstrated that taxol-induced cell death with cytoplasm vacuolization is not oncosis. FCM analysis by Annexin V-FITC/PI apoptosis detection kit further demonstrated that taxol-induced cell death with cytoplasm vacuolization is not apoptosis. In conclusion, in combination with our recent in vitro and in vivo data, this report further demonstrates that high concentration of taxol induces cell death with cytoplasm vacuolization in paraptosis-like but not oncosis fashion.

Mechanistic Analysis of Taxol-induced Multidrug Resistance in an Ovarian Cancer Cell Line

To establish a taxol-resistant cell line of human ovarian carcinoma (A2780/Taxol) and investigate its biological features. The drug-resistant cell line (A2780/Taxol) was established by continuous stepwise selection with increasing concentrations of Taxol. Cell morphology was assessed by microscopy and growth curves were generated with in vitro and in vivo tumor xenograft models. With rhodamine123 (Rh123) assays, cell cycle distribution and the apoptotic rate were analyzed by flow cytometry (FCM). Drug resistance-related and signal associated proteins, including P-gp, MRPs, caveolin-1, PKC-α, Akt, ERK1/2, were detected by Western blotting. A2780/Taxol cells were established with stable resistance to taxol. The drug resistance index (RI) was 430.7. Cross-resistance to other drugs was also shown, but there was no significant change to radioresistance. Compared with parental cells, A2780/Taxol cells were significantly heteromorphous, with a significant delay in population doubling time and reduced uptake of Rh123 (p < 0.01). In vivo, tumor take by A2780 cells was 80%, and tumor volume increased gradually. In contrast, with A2780/Taxol cells in xenograft models there was no tumor development. FCM analysis revealed that A2780/Taxol cells had a higher percentage of G0/G1 and lower S phase, but no changes of G2 phase and the apoptosis rate. Expression of P-gp, MRP1, MRP2, BCRP, LRP, caveolin-1, PKC-α, Phospho-ERK1/2 and Phospho-JNK protein was significantly up-regulated, while Akt and p38 MARK protein expression was not changed in A2780/Taxol cells. The A2780/Taxol cell line is an ideal model to investigate the mechanism of muti-drug resistance related to overexpression of drug-resistance associated proteins and activation of the PKC-α/ERK (JNK) signaling pathway.

CD44/Cellular prion protein interact in multidrug resistant breast cancer cells and correlate with responses to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients

Multidrug resistance (MDR) is one of the most important factors leading to chemotherapeutic failure in patients with breast cancer. The invasive/metastatic ability of MDR cells is strengthened compared with their parental cells. However, the mechanisms underlying MDR have not been fully elucidated. We found that CD44 and the cellular prion protein (PrPc) were both overexpressed in MDR cells (MCF7/Adr and H69AR). Subsequently, we chose the human breast cancer cell line MCF7/Adr, which is resistant to adriamycin, for further research. We discovered that PrPc physically and functionally interacted with CD44. The knockdown of CD44 or PrPc by siRNA in MCF7/Adr cells inhibited cell migration, invasion and proliferation in vitro. However, when the MCF7/Adr cells transfected with CD44 siRNA were incubated with 10 times the peak plasma concentration (PPC) of taxol, their invasive ability was again enhanced. In the breast-carcinoma tissue samples, a significant correlation between the CD44 expression and the PrPc expression was observed in the postneoadjuvant-chemotherapy (NAC) cases. Moreover, in Group 2, which was unresponsive to NAC, the CD44 and PrPc expression levels were significantly increased in the post-NAC cases compared with the pre-NAC cases using the paired-samples t-test. These data indicate that the CD44/PrPc interaction enhances the malignancy of breast cancer cells and affects the responses to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients. Therefore, blocking the CD44/PrPc interaction may improve outcomes in chemorefractory breast cancer patients.

Evaluation of the anti-proliferative activity of three new pyrazole compounds in sensitive and resistant tumor cell lines

BackgroundIn previous papers we demonstrated that the activity of short heteroretinoids as anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic compounds was deeply linked to their heterocyclic moiety and that ionone-derived 1,5-pyrazoles had the highest anti-proliferative activity in our preliminary experiments. We then demonstrated the high and pharmacologically significant anti-proliferative and apoptotic activities of the pyrazole compounds 2-(1-(4-chlorophenyl)-1H-pyrazol-5-yl)-5-methoxyphenol (EN12-4), 5-methoxy-2-(1-(pyridin-2-yl)-1H-pyrazol-5-yl)phenol (EN12-2A) and 2-(5-(4-methoxyphenyl)-1H-pyrazol-1-yl)pyridine (EN7-2) establishing, especially for EN12-2A, a possible mechanism of action involving the cell microtubular system. MethodsHere, the anti-proliferative activity of these pyrazole compounds was analyzed in vitro by the MTT assay in six drugresistant cell lines, five of which were selected after exposure to increasing concentrations of cisplatin (L1210/DDP), doxorubicin (A2780/DX3), 5-fluorouracil (HCT-8/5FU), taxol (A549/T24) and etoposide (MCF-7/VP), and one was obtained by transfection of the ABCG2 membrane transporter (HEK-293/R2). ResultsOur data show that these compounds have a similar anti-proliferative activity in nearly all resistant and sensitive cell lines, demonstrating their ability to overcome the most common mechanisms of drug resistance with two exceptions regarding the MCF-7/VP cell line over-expressing the ABCC1 (MRP1) transporter, and the MDR1 over-expressing A2780/DX3 cells, with a calculated RI=3.2 for EN12-2A, relative to their sensitive cellular counterpart. On the other hand, the taxol-resistant A549/T24 cell line showed a significantly increased sensitivity to our compounds. ConclusionsOur data suggest that our pyrazole compounds are able to overcome in vitro the most common drug-resistance mechanisms demonstrating a significant anti-proliferative activity and confirming a mechanism of action involving the depolymerization of microtubules.

Cell cycle inhibition therapy that targets stathmin in in vitro and in vivo models of breast cancer

Stathmin is the founding member of a family of microtubule-destabilizing proteins that have a critical role in the regulation of mitosis. Stathmin is expressed at high levels in breast cancer and its overexpression is linked to disease progression. Although there is a large body of evidence to support a role for stathmin in breast cancer progression, the validity of stathmin as a viable therapeutic target for breast cancer has not been investigated. Here, we used a bicistronic adenoviral vector that co-expresses green fluorescent protein and a ribozyme that targets stathmin messenger RNA in preclinical breast cancer models with different estrogen receptor (ER) status. We examined the effects of anti-stathmin ribozyme on the malignant phenotype of breast cancer cells in vitro and in xenograft models in vivo both as a single agent and in combination with chemotherapeutic agents. Adenovirus-mediated gene transfer of anti-stathmin ribozyme resulted in a dose-dependent inhibition of proliferation and clonogenicity associated with a G2/M arrest and increase in apoptosis in both ER-positive and ER-negative breast cancer cell lines. This inhibition was markedly enhanced when stathmin-inhibited breast cancer cells were exposed to low concentrations of taxol, which resulted in virtually complete loss of the malignant phenotype. Interestingly, breast cancer xenografts treated with low doses of anti-stathmin therapy and taxol showed regression in a majority of tumors, while some tumors stopped growing completely. In contrast, combination of anti-stathmin ribozyme and adriamycin resulted in only a modest inhibition of growth in vitro and in breast cancer xenografts in vivo. Although inhibition of tumor growth was observed in both the combination treatment groups compared with groups treated with single agent alone, combination of anti-stathmin therapy and taxol had a more profound inhibition of tumorigenicity, as both agents target the microtubule pathway. Clinically, these findings are highly relevant because taxol is one of the most active chemotherapeutic agents in breast cancer. These studies provide the proof-of-principle that stathmin provides an attractive molecular target, which could serve as a primary focus of novel approaches to breast cancer.

Investigation of aqueous stability of taxol in different release media

In the present study, the aqueous stability of taxol in different aqueous media and immiscible aqueous/organic systems at 37 °C was investigated. The aqueous media included phosphate buffered saline (PBS) and PBS containing 10% methanol, 10% ethanol, 10% hydroxypropyl β-cyclodextrin (HP-βCD), 1% sodium citrate and 1% Tween 80. The immiscible systems consisted of PBS/octanol, PBS/dichloromethane, PBS/chloroform and PBS/ethyl acetate. The concentrations of taxol and related derivatives in each of the media were determined through the high-performance liquid chromatography assay. Results showed that hydrolysis and epimerization were two major types of degradation for taxol in the aqueous media starting from the initial hours of contact (6 hours). Addition of Tween 80 to PBS moderately increased the aqueous stability of taxol. As well, using PBS containing 10% HP-βCD inhibited the taxol hydrolysis, while epimerization still in process. In the case of immiscible systems, except for PBS/ethyl acetate system, no evidences of taxol hydrolysis were observed. Meanwhile, epimerization of taxol in PBS/dichloromethane and PBS/chloroform systems underwent due to the ability of C–Cl bonds to form hydrogen bonding with the hydroxyl group of C7 of taxol.

The Effects of Nanomolar Concentrations of Taxol on Microtubule Polymerization

Microtubules are intracellular polymers that assemble from heterodimeric αβ-tubulin subunits. Polymerizing microtubules exhibit dynamic instability, a GTP-hydrolysis-driven phenomenon in which they alternate abruptly between phases of growth and relatively rapid shortening. The kinetics of tubulin subunit exchange at the microtubule tip, which are crucial to processes such as mitosis, are affected by the chemotherapeutic drug taxol, but the precise mechanism of action at therapeutic concentrations remains unclear. An understanding of how taxol alters exchange kinetics may assist in the development of new chemotherapeutic drugs.We observe microtubules polymerized at 4.5 micromolar tubulin and at 1-480 nanomolar taxol using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM), achieving improvements in spatial and temporal resolution of, respectively, 1 and 2 orders of magnitude compared to previous taxol studies. We measure microtubule length changes to within 25 nm at 8 Hz, and we detect changes in the structure of the microtubule tip. We find that taxol potently affects microtubule growth at concentrations as low as 10 nM. At these concentrations we observed higher variability in growth rate than seen under control conditions, especially on long timescales (on the order of 100 seconds). In some cases, microtubules switched between normal growth and periods of very slow growth. Further, we have found that 10 nM taxol almost completely suppresses rapid shortening, and beginning at 100 nM taxol, the tubulin on and off rates gradually decrease, though the microtubule net growth rate (excluding periods of very slow growth in taxol-microtubules) remains constant.

Unstructured models for suspension cultures of Taxus media cells in a bioreactor under substrate-sufficient conditions

For a better understanding of the simulation, optimization, and process control in cell cultures, good kinetic models are necessary for large scale plant cell culture. In this paper, the systematic kinetics of taxol production by Taxus media cell suspension cultures in a stirred 15-L bioreactor under substrate-sufficient conditions and the absence of inducer intervention were studied. A kinetic model of cell growth was established by logistic equation, and kinetic unstructured models of substrate consumption, product synthesis and rheological behavior were constituted, which incorporated energy spilling. These models were verified by comparing the simulation results with those obtained experimentally. These results showed that energy spilling was a key factor that must be considered in constructing unstructured kinetic models of Taxus media cell suspension cultures in a stirred bioreactor under substrate-sufficient conditions. Besides, an optimized operation measure of decreasing energy spilling was proposed. An increase of 17.64% in cell biomass and 14.88% in taxol concentration were obtained when the strategy of limiting added carbon several times was experimentally implemented in a 15-L bioreactor. Results demonstrated that these established models should be helpful in the process prediction and operation optimization to guide the production and amplification of Taxus media cell suspension cultures in a bioreactor.