Syntheses and biological activity of C-3'-difluoromethyl-taxoids.

A series of new taxoids bearing difluoromethyl group at the C-3' position and modifications at the C-10 and C-14 positions has been synthesized and their biological activities studied. The in vitro cytotoxicity assay results indicate that these newly developed taxoids exhibit comparable to several times better activity against drug-sensitive cell line LCC6-WT, and 40-70 times better activity against the corresponding drug-resistant cancer cell line LCC6-MDR as compared to that of paclitaxel. Apoptosis analysis has revealed the exceptional activity of SB-T-12843 (1e) in inducing apoptosis in both MDR-bearing and MDR-negative cancer cells.