The Taxol Pharmacophore and the T-Taxol Bridging Principle

Abstract

Different approaches to developing an accurate model of the binding conformation ofpaclitaxel (TaxolTM, PTX) on ?-tubulin are discussed. Electron crystallography, molecularmodeling, NMR and synthetic studies all point to the T-Taxol conformation as the bioactiveform. The range of molecular designs represented by synthetic taxoids prepared to test the latter,with an emphasis on internally bridged analogs, is summarized. Key implications andconclusions derived from the retrospective are presented.