A novel, expeditious synthesis of racemic camptothecin

RJ Anderson, GB Raolji, A Kanazawa…

Index: Anderson, Regan J.; Raolji, Gajendra B.; Kanazawa, Alice; Greene, Andrew E. Organic Letters, 2005 , vol. 7, # 14 p. 2989 - 2991

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Citation Number: 38

Abstract

Isolated from the Chinese plant Camptotheca acuminata by Wall and co-workers in 1966, camptothecin (1) elicited widespread interest due to its potent antitumor activity. 1,2 The initial excitement quickly waned, however, because of problems associated with its insolubility and toxicity. Several years later, 3 though, it was reported that camptothecin had a unique mechanism of action that involved selective inhibition of DNA topoisomerase I. This disclosure served to rekindle interest in ...