Tubulin-interacting agents - Epilogue

Besides the many recognised compounds described and detailed in the present issue including the Vinca alkaloids, the taxanes, certain cryptophycines, epothilones and eleutherobines, several new products interacting with tubulin are identified regularly in the literature. These products may have been isolated from natural sources (plants, marine organisms, bacteria), but also more recently combinatorial, or at least automatised chemistry, has provided new families of "small" molecules, which on occasions have been found by High Throughput Screening directed against tubulin as a specific target. A recent review has listed more than one hundred of such derivatives [1]. Certain of these are in an advanced stage of pharmaceutical development, as reviewed by Li et al. [2] and von Angerer [3]. From a mechanistic point of view, these newer products may be classified into one of three main families, although exceptions to this rule are now also being reported on : microtubule stabilising compounds, Vinca alkaloid site interacting agents, colchicine site binders. This brief final contribution to this volume will focus only on the newly identified products for which active pharmaceutical development has been reported on during the last three years.