10-デアセチルバッカチンIII

10-Deacetylbaccatins are natural molecules isolated by a multistep biosynthetic pathway from the yew tree, acting as precursors to the anticancer drug docetaxel. The key reaction is the acetylation of 10-deacetylbaccatin-III (10-DAB) to obtain baccatin-III, an assumed precursor of docetaxel.

The breakthrough arrived during the 80s, when a group of researchers guided by Pierre Potier – at the forefront of the French school of natural-products chemistry - identified the 10-Deacetylbaccatin III, isolated from Taxus baccata, as a readily accessible starting material for the semisynthesis of anticancer taxanes.

Already in that time, the taxanes attracted attention because of their promising clinical activities as anticancer, altogether with some worries about their limited availability; this generated a wide number of studies aimed to solve this issue.

Finally, the possibility to obtain large quantities of taxanes with a purity grade available for clinical scopes by a biosynthetic pathway, standardized and controlled, was welcomed with lot of enthusiasm.