Maytansinol Functionalization: Towards Useful Probes for Studying Microtubule Dynamics.

Maytansinoids represent a successful class of natural and semisynthetic tubulin binders, known for their potent cytotoxic activity. Their wider application as cytotoxins and chemical probes to study tubulin dynamics was set back due to the complexity of natural product chemistry. Here we report the synthesis of long-chain derivatives and maytansinoid conjugates. We confirmed that bulky substituents do not impact their high activity and the scaffold's binding mode. These encouraging results open new avenues for the design of new maytansine-based probes.