Structure-activity relationships of Taxol and Taxotere analogues.

From Taxol, Taxotere, and 10-deacetyl baccatin III, a number of compounds have been prepared. Their biological activity was evaluated on microtubule disassembly at 0 degrees C. The conformation of these Taxol and Taxotere analogues was determined by molecular modeling experiments and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and compared with the structure of Taxotere in the crystal, obtained by an x-ray analysis. The results of these studies given information on the crucial parts of the active molecules involved in the binding to tubulin.