From the invisible to the visible world and back...

Hi everyone today I will tell you about a nano-drug called abraxane, which was approved in 2005 by the FDA.

The active ingredient of this drug are nanoparticles of albumin-bound paclitaxel of 130 nm in size, corresponding to an intravenous drug used in therapy of the following cancer:

-Advanced breast cancer in people who have already received other cancer drugs.
-Lung cancer.
-Advanced pancreatic cancer.



A natural source of Paclitaxel was discovered in Taxus bacatta, also called Himalaya yew. Yews are shrubs or trees up to 15 meters, depending on the weather and soil conditions.

The mechanism of action of Paclitaxel involves the cellular microtubules. Cellular microtubules are essential in the formation of the mitotic spindle, as well as for the maintenance of cellular scaffolds that the maintenance of the cell's shape and the transport of organelles therein.

Paclitaxel promotes the assembly of microtubules, and inhibits their decoupling. It can be said that they "freeze" the cellular structure.

These drugs facilitate the polymerization of tubulin, a protein subunit of the microtubules, stimulating the formation of a stable but nonfunctional mitotic spindle. Paclitaxel "freezes" the cells in the G2 and M phases of the cell cycle, leading to inhibition of mitosis.

Goodbye thanks for read my post!