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Taxol-Induced Apoptosis May Occur Via a Signaling Pathway Independent of Microtubule Bundling and Cell Cycle Arrest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

Weimin Fan ,
Merrill C. Miller III ,
Lirong Cheng  and
Mark C. Willingham
Weimin Fan
Affiliation:
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC29425
Merrill C. Miller III
Affiliation:
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC29425
Lirong Cheng
Affiliation:
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC29425
Mark C. Willingham
Affiliation:
Department of Pathology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC27157
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Extract

Taxol, a plant-derived antimicrotubule agent, was originally isolated from the bark of the Pacific yew, Taxus brevifolia. This naturally occurring antineoplastic drug has been demonstrated to possess broad activity against a variety of human solid tumors, particularly in drug-refractory ovarian cancer and metastatic breast cancer (1). However, the exact mechanism of taxol's cytotoxicity against tumor cells is not entirely clear. Recent studies have demonstrated that taxol, besides causing microtubule bundling and mitotic arrest, is able to induce internucleosomal DNA fragmentation and typical morphological features of apoptosis in a number of solid tumor cells. These results clearly indicate that taxol, in addition to its classical activity against microtubules and cell cycle arrest, also possesses significant cell-killing activity by induction of apoptosis.

Although it is well recognized that taxol can cause both mitotic arrest and apoptotic cell death, it remains unclear whether taxol-induced cell death is a secondary event resulting from mitotic arrest or represents a novel mechanism of taxol against tumor cells.

Type
Chemotherapeutic Agents That Affect Microtubules: Mechanisms of Response and Chemotherapeutic Agents and Microtubules
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 4 , Issue S2: Proceedings: Microscopy & Microanalysis '98, Microscopy Society of America 56th Annual Meeting, Microbeam Analysis Society 32nd Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia July 12-16, 1998 , July 1998 , pp. 1042 - 1043
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America

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References

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