Author : Melvin Parasram
Publisher : LAP Lambert Academic Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9783846508046
Total Pages : 148 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (8 download)
Book Synopsis Tumor-Targeting Taxane-Based Anti-Cancer Agents by : Melvin Parasram
Download or read book Tumor-Targeting Taxane-Based Anti-Cancer Agents written by Melvin Parasram and published by LAP Lambert Academic Publishing. This book was released on 2011-09 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cancer is the leading cause of death of patients below the age of 85. Traditional chemotherapeutics, such as Taxol (r) and Taxotere (r) have had a significant impact in the field of chemotherapy because of their unique mechanism of action of inducing apoptosis by stabilizing microtubules during mitotic cell division. However, studies have indicated that these drugs are not active in multi-drug resistant (MDR) cancer cells. MDR arises from the overexpression of ATP-binding cassette proteins which enable the cancer cell to remove cytotoxic agents from the cell via ATP dependent efflux pumps, resulting in the loss of efficacy of the drug. In addition to the problem of MDR, traditional chemotherapeutics have little or no specificity, which leads to systemic toxicity, causing severe and harmful side effects. Therefore, it is important to develop next generation taxoids with increased potency and activity in MDR expressing cancers, as well as to incorporate these cytotoxic agents to tumor-targeting delivery systems to ensure selective cytotoxicity and reduce systemic toxicity. In general, these delivery systems include a tumor-targeting module and a cytotoxic ag