Table 2.
Chemotherapeutic drugs implicated in chemotherapy‐induced peripheral neuropathy
| Compound class | Name | Mode of action | Types of cancer treated | Neurotoxic dose in patients (mg/m2) | NP incidence (%) | Reference | Reported neurite length IC50 (μM) | Detected cell viability IC50 (μM) | Detected neurite length IC50 (μM) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taxanes | Paclitaxel/Taxol/Onxol | Inhibit microtubule depolymerization, mitotic arrest | Breast, ovarian, lung, prostate, pancreatic | 200–250 | 11–87 | 7, 57, 58, 59, 60 | 0.0056–0.01 | 7.4 | 0.005 |
| Topoisomerase inhibitors | Etoposide/Etopophos | Interfere with the breakage‐reunion reaction of DNA topoisomerase II | Testicular, lung, lymphoma, leukemia, neuroblastoma, ovarian | NA | NA | 58, 59 | 0.36 | 3.2 | 0.019 |
| Vinca alkaloids | Vincristine/Leurocristine/Oncorin | Inhibit microtubule polymerization, mitotic arrest | Lung, brain, bladder, testicular | 5–15 | Up to 20 | 57, 58 | 0.0055–0.002 | 0.6 | 0.063 |
| Platinum‐based | Cisplatin/Platinol | Cancer‐cell DNA‐crosslinking, bind to DNA, cell cycle arrest, apoptosis | Lung, ovarian, bladder, germ cells, testicular, colorectal | 250–350 | 70–100 | 7, 57, 58 | >100 | 3.1 | 0.005 |
| Proteasome inhibitors | Bortezomib/Velcade | Inhibit proteasome degradation, cycle arrest, enhance microtubule polymerization | Multiple myeloma | 30 | 20–30 | 7, 57, 58, 61 | >100 | 1 | 4.2 |
Summarized characteristics of neurotoxicity‐inducing drugs routinely used in cancer treatment. List of cancers treated is by no means exclusive, rather we point out the most frequently treated cancers assigned to a given drug or a group of drugs. The dose–response values (IC50) of cell viability (Resazurin reduction), and neurite total length per neuron for induced sensory neuron cells treated with various classed of chemotherapeutic drugs for 48 hours. Each data point represents the mean ± SEM; n = 3 for independent experiments. Abbreviation: NA, not applicable.