• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.286-291
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• 1997

Taxol which is recognized as a powerful anticancer reagent was extracted from yew extract and separated by NP-HPLC (Normal-PhaseHigh Performance Liquid Chromatography). The experiments were performed in the isocratic mode with $5{\mu}l$ to $100{\mu}l$ injection volume and 1ml/min mobile phase flow rate. The major mobile phase was hexane and small amounts of ethanol, methanol, 1-propanol and isopropanol were added to change the retention behavior. Prior to a real sample, the artificial mixture of taxol, cephalomannine and 10-deacetyltaxol was tested. They are hard to be separated because of similar chemical structures. The experimental results showed that the proper composition of mobile phase for separating the three components was found 96% hexane and 4% ethanol(vol.%) or 96% hexane, 2% 1-propanol and 2% methanol(vol.%). Compared to the run time of 80 minutes for the binary system, the mixture was separated within 50 minutes with the less amount of mobile phase for the ternary system. Finally, $1{\mu}g$ of taxol was separated from yew tree extracts under the optimum operating conditions.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.143-148
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• 1995

The effects of various elicitors, metabolic inhibitors and growth regulators on the production of diterpenoid anticancer agent taxol were investigated in cell suspension cultures of Taxus brevifolia. Cell cultures of T. brevifolia were treated by 5 kinds of biotic elicitors, 5 kinds of abiotic elicitors, 2 kinds of metabolic inhibitors and 8 kinds of growth regulators at the end of exponential growth phase. Among those treatments, chlorocholine chloride-an inhibitor of plant steroid metabolism-increased the taxol production most significantly. From a series of optimization studies, it was found that the addition of 1mM of chlorocholine chloride at the 9th day of culture was the best for taxol production. Taxol yield under this condition was 0.72mg/$\ell$.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.8
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• pp.1379-1385
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• 2017

The content of taxol in the bark of yews is very low, and this is not affordable from the environmental point of view. Thus, it is a necessity to look for alternative sources of taxol production to solve its supply. Currently, a large portion of the taxol in the market comes from chemical semi-synthesis, but the semi-synthetic precursors such as baccatin III and 10-deacetyl-baccatin III are extracted from needles and twigs of yew trees. Taxol-producing fungi as a renewable resource is a very promising way to increase the scale of taxol production. Our group has obtained a taxol-producing endophytic fungus, Aspergillus niger subsp. taxi HD86-9, to examine if A. niger can produce the taxanes. Six compounds from the fermentation broth of strain HD86-9 were isolated and identified by $^1H$ NMR, $^{13}C$ NMR, and ESI-MS. The results showed that the six compounds included four taxane diterpenoids (taxol, cephalomannine, baccatin III, and 10-deacetyl-baccatin III) and two non-taxane compounds (${\beta}-sitosterol$ and flavonoid isovitexin). The study verified that the taxanes can be produced by the A. niger, which is very important to taxol production via chemical semi-synthesis. Additionally, the finding is potentially very significant to solve the taxol semi-synthetic precursors extracted from needles and twigs of yew trees, and the precursor production can be easily increased through the culture condition optimization, genetic breeding, and metabolic engineering of the A. niger.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.186-190
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• 1994

The content of taxol and related compounds in various tissues of native yews( T. cuspidata var. latifolia) grown in 5 locations of Ullung Island were analyzed. A considerable range of vanation in the content was observed in the needle and bark collected from different trees located at the same area as well as at five different areas. Taxol content was much higher in the needle(0.017% on the dry weight basis) than those in the bark, whereas the content of 10-deacetyl baccatin III(10-DAB III) was slightly higher in the bark(0.073%), regardless of the location of the trees collected. Particuayly, the needle collected from the Hyunpo area, which located in North-west part of Ullung Island, contained the highest level of taxol(0.024%) exceeding the reported level in dried barks of Pacific yew and also somewhat higher level of its Precusor, 10-DAB III(0.049%). These results suggested that the needle of the yew at the Ullung Island could be suitable materials as a renewable source for the mass production of taxol.

• BMB Reports
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.237-243
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• 2001

Taxol, a natural product extracted from the Taxus brevifolia, is known to have significant anti-tumor activities against many common cancers, including ovarian and breast cancers. Despite the pronounced anti-tumor activity of this compound, its poor solubility in aqueous solutions hampers its clinical applications. We studied the anticancer mechanisms of the water-soluble taxol diethylenetriamine pentaacetate (DTPA) used for radiolabeling, and compared it to that of taxol. In vitro cytotoxicities of taxol and taxol-DTPA conjugate were tested in HT29 human colorectal cancer cells by the MTT method. As the result, the $IC_{50}$ value of the taxol-DTPA conjugate was about three fold higher than that of taxol. When analyzed by an agarose gel electrophoresis, the DNA ladders became evident after the incubation of cells with the taxol-DTPA conjugate for 24 h. We also found morphological changes of the cells undergoing apoptosis with electron microscopy Next, we examined the signal pathway of taxol-DTPA conjugate-induced apoptosis in HT29 cells. The activation of extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (ERK1/2) occurred at 10, 30, 60 and 120 min after 200 nM taxol-DTPA conjugate treatment. The pretreatment of the MEK inhibitor (PD98059) completely blocked the taxol-DTPA conjugate-induced ERK1/2 activation. The activated ERK1/2 translocated into the nucleus at the same time and phosphorylated its transcriptional factor, c-Jun. These results suggest that the taxol-DTPA conjugate has an apoptotic activity in HT29 cells, and that its proapoptic activity might be related with the signal transduction via ERK1/2 and c-Jun similar to that of taxol.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.1246-1253
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• 2008

Phyllosticta melochiae, an endophytic fungus isolated from the healthy leaves of Melochia corchorifolia, was screened for the production of an anticancer drug, taxol on modified liquid medium and potato dextrose broth medium in culture for the first time. The presence of taxol was confirmed by spectroscopic and chromatographic methods of analysis. The amount of taxol produced by this fungus was quantified by high performance liquid chromatography. The maximum amount of fungal taxol production was recorded as $274{\mu}g/L$. The production rate was increased to $5.5{\times}1,000$ fold than that found in the culture broth of earlier reported fungus, Taxomyces andreanae. The fungal taxol extracted also showed a strong cytotoxic activity in the in vitro culture of tested human cancer cells by apoptotic assay. The results designate that the fungal endophyte, P. melochiae is an excellent candidate for an alternate source of taxol supply and can serve as a potential species for genetic engineering to enhance the production of taxol to a higher level.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.321-327
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• 2001

The synthesis of novel taxol analogues with an amine moiety at the 7- and 10-positions to examine the BBB penetration was described. The analogues were synthesized from 2'-O-(tert-butyldim-ethylsilyl)taxol and 2'-0-(tert-butyldimethylsilyl) -7-O-(triethylsilyl)-10-deacetyltaxol, the key intermediates, in 2 steps via the esterification with heterocyclic amino acids and the subsequent desilylation reaction.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.394-404
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• 2007

Oral squamous cell carcinoma is the most prevalent oral cancer, which is characterized by its high metastasis and recurrent rates and poor prognosis. Taxol is an anticancer agent which is microbial products extracted from jew tree. It combines with the tubulin and induces apoptosis by inhibiting mitosis of cell with microtubule stabilization. Recently, it was reported to be effective in various solid tumors, but only very slight effect has been seen in oral squamous cell carcinomas due to its cell-specific potencies. Cyclosporin A is used as immune suppressant and is being applied in anticancer therapy as its mechanism of induction of change of apoptotic process in various cells have been known. In this study, oral squamous cell carcinoma HN22 cell line was used for in vitro experiment and as for the experimental group taxol and cyclosporin A were applied alone and to observe the synergistic effect of apoptosis, Taxol and cyclosporin A were coadministered with different concentration of taxol for comparison. The results were obtained as follow: 1. There was no difference in Bcl-2, Bax, caspase 3, 8, 9 mRNA expression when cyclosprin A or taxol was applied alone to HN 22 cell line. 2. Caspase 3, 9 mRNA expression was prominently increased when cyclosprin A and taxol were applied together to cancer cell. 3. No significant difference was observed when cyclosporin A and taxol($1{\mu}g/ml$ and $3{\mu}g/ml$) were applied together to cancer cell line. 4. No significant difference was seen in Bcl-2, Bax, and caspase 8 mRNA expression in all the groups of in vitro experiments. 5. When cyclosporin A was applied alone in vivo study on the nude mice, histopathologi cal findings was similar to those of the control group. Oral squamous cell carcinoma induced by inoculation of HN 22 cell line was not reduced after treatment of cyclosporin A. 6. When taxol was applied alone, the islands of squamous cell carcinoma still remained, which meant insignificant healing effect. There was a lesser volume increase compared with the cyclosporin A alone. 7. When taxol and cyclosporin A were applied together, the connective tissue and calcification were seen in the histopathologic findings. Oral squamous cell carcinoma was decreased and cancer cell was disappeared. In observing the tumor mass change with time, there was a gradual decreased size and healing features. As the results of the in vitro experiment, it could conclud that only when the two agents are applied together, mitochondria-mediated apoptosis occurred by considerable increase of caspase 3, 9 mRNA expression, irrespectable of the concentration of taxol. In vivo experiment, there was a discrete synergistic effect when the two agents were applied together. But single use of cyclosporin A was not effective in this study. Based on the results of this experiment, if further clinical studies are done, taxol and cyclosporin A could be effectively used in treatment of oral squamous cell carcinomas.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.323-328
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• 1996

Effects of three kinds of precursors as well as exogenous taxanes on the production of taxol and its derivatives were investigated in Taxus cuspidata and Taxus brevifolia cell suspension cultures. When geraniol was added as a precursor of geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate to enhance diterpenoid metabolism, production of some taxanes including taxol was enhanced. The time of addition and amount of feeding were found to be important factors. Feeding of camphor and menthol resulted in negative effects on taxol production. Influences of exogenous taxanes on taxane production by cell cultures were found to be very complicated. When taxol, baccatin III, cephalomannine were exogenously added into the culture, production of baccatin III, 7-epi-10-deacetyltaxol, 10-deacetyltaxol was increased respectively.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.299-305
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• 1994

Taxol contents in various parts of 15 years old yew tree were determined. The descending order of taxol content per unit mass was stem bark, root bark, needle and seed. In the seed, that order was seed coat, embryo and endosperm. The total amount of taxol extractable from a 15 years old yew tree was 1.68 gram. This amount was distributed in needle, stem bark, root bark and seeds as 48.0, 23.8, 27.9 and 0.4%, respectively. Altitudinal variation of taxol content was also observed. More taxol was observed in yew trees grown at high altitude over 1000m above sea level. Calli and suspension cultures were induced from various yew trees. The presence of taxo] in cultured cells was established bv HPLC. The taxol content in cultured cells were different according to the source of explants. These results may be useful for the goal of large scale taxol production by cultured yew tree cells.