CASE STUDY

Tanner Anderson

PATIENT CONDITION

• An English man is brought into the hospital with symptoms including accelerated heart rate, muscle tremors, and difficulty breathing

• His family informs you that he very suddenly became ill after going out for a picnic and consuming some of the seeds he found in the woods

• Not long after being admitted, the man collapses and he is hooked up to fluids and is put on close watch until cause can be detected

WHAT COULD BE A POSSIBLE DIAGNOSIS?

TESTS DONE

• A blood sample is taken from the man and a few tests are done• Liquid chromatography •Mass spectrometry

AND THE RESULTS…

• You discover 3,5-dimethoxyphenol is present

• This is evidence of taxine poisoning

• 3,5-dimethoxyphenol is a product formed when there is a break in taxine’s glycosidic bond

• Taxine is a potent toxin that is extremely prevalent in the seeds of yew trees

TAXINE

• Mechanism of action thought to be disruption of sodium potassium pumps and disruption of action potential by reducing rate of depolarization• Also found to be a

potent spindle poison

SPINDLE POISON

• Poison that disrupts cell division•Derivatives of taxine have shown to target tubulin in order to disrupt cell division• This has made taxine an effective agent in treatment of other diseases

WHAT DISEASE COULD TAXINE BY EFFECTIVE AT

TREATING?

CANCER!!!

• Since derivatives of taxine have shown to be effective at disrupting cell division, this had made them effective at treating cancer• Common drug used to

treat cancer is paclitaxel

PACLITAXEL

• Paclitaxel is a cytoskeletal drug that targets tubulin in order to stop cell division

• Prevents microtubules from disassembling which blocks the progression of mitosis and activates apoptosis

• Paclitaxel interacts with the β subunit of the tubulin protein to carry out its desired function

• And now, back to our patient…

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO TREAT TAXINE POISONING?

TREATMENT

• No specific antidote for the toxin so patients can only be treated for their symptoms• Things to help relieve symptoms:• Stomach dump followed by the administration

of cathartics and activated carbon• Atropine to control blood pressure and heart rate

REFERENCES

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3086919/• https://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/a?dbs+hsdb:@ter

m+@DOCNO+3541

• https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/6433563• http://chemocare.com/chemotherapy/drug-info/Paclitaxel.aspx