scholarly journals Betulinic Acid-Nitrogen Heterocyclic Derivatives: Design, Synthesis, and Antitumor Evaluation in Vitro

Molecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 948
Author(s):  
Yuqin Yang ◽  
Tianxin Xie ◽  
Xuehao Tian ◽  
Nana Han ◽  
Xiaojing Liu ◽  
...  

Betulinic acid (BA) is a star member of the pentacyclic triterpenoid family, which exhibits great prospects for antitumor drug development. In an attempt to develop novel antitumor candidates, 21 BA-nitrogen heterocyclic derivatives were synthetized, in addition to four intermediates, 23 of which were first reported. Moreover, they were screened for in-vitro cytotoxicity against four tumor cell lines (Hela, HepG-2, BGC-823 and SK-SY5Y) by a standard methylthiazol tetrazolium (MTT) assay. The majority of these derivatives showed much stronger cytotoxic activity than BA. Remarkably, the most potent compound 7e (the half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of which was 2.05 ± 0.66 μM) was 12-fold more toxic in vitro than BA-treated Hela. Furthermore, multiple fluorescent staining techniques and flow cytometry collectively revealed that compound 7e could induce the early apoptosis of Hela cells. Structure–activity relationships were also briefly discussed. The present study highlighted the importance of introducing nitrogen heterocyclic rings into betulinic acid in the discovery and development of novel antitumor agents.

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 2994 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kang Fang ◽  
Xiao-Hua Zhang ◽  
Yao-Tian Han ◽  
Gao-Rong Wu ◽  
De-Sheng Cai ◽  
...  

Hederagenin (He) is a novel triterpene template for the development of new antitumor compounds. In this study, 26 new He–pyrazine derivatives were synthetized in an attempt to develop potent antitumor agents; they were screened for in vitro cytotoxicity against tumor and non-tumor cell lines. The majority of these derivatives showed much stronger cytotoxic activity than He. Remarkably, the most potent was compound 9 (half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) was 3.45 ± 0.59 μM), which exhibited similar antitumor activities against A549 (human non-small-cell lung cancer) as the positive drug cisplatin (DDP; IC50 was 3.85 ± 0.63 μM), while it showed lower cytotoxicity on H9c2 (murine heart myoblast; IC50 was 16.69 ± 0.12 μM) cell lines. Compound 9 could induce the early apoptosis and evoke cell-cycle arrest at the synthesis (S) phase of A549 cells. Impressively, we innovatively introduced the method of cluster analysis modeled as partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) into the structure–activity relationship (SAR) evaluation, and SAR confirmed that pyrazine had a profound effect on the antitumor activity of He. The present studies highlight the importance of pyrazine derivatives of He in the discovery and development of novel antitumor agents.


2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 1763-1766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuanzhu Gao ◽  
Shaohua Gou ◽  
Lei Fang ◽  
Jian Zhao

Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvana Alfei ◽  
Anna Maria Schito ◽  
Guendalina Zuccari

Ursolic acid (UA) is a pentacyclic triterpenoid found in many medicinal plants and aromas endowed with numerous in vitro pharmacological activities, including antibacterial effects. Unfortunately, UA is poorly administered in vivo, due to its water insolubility, low bioavailability, and residual systemic toxicity, thus making urgent the development of water-soluble UA formulations. Dendrimers are nonpareil macromolecules possessing highly controlled size, shape, and architecture. In dendrimers with cationic surface, the contemporary presence of inner cavities and of hydrophilic peripheral functions, allows to encapsulate hydrophobic non-water-soluble drugs as UA, to enhance their water-solubility and stability, and to promote their protracted release, thus decreasing their systemic toxicity. In this paper, aiming at developing a new UA-based antibacterial agent administrable in vivo, we reported the physical entrapment of UA in a biodegradable not cytotoxic cationic dendrimer (G4K). UA-loaded dendrimer nanoparticles (UA-G4K) were obtained, which showed a drug loading (DL%) much higher than those previously reported, a protracted release profile governed by diffusion mechanisms, and no cytotoxicity. Also, UA-G4K was characterized by principal components analysis (PCA)-processed FTIR spectroscopy, by NMR and elemental analyses, and by dynamic light scattering experiments (DLS). The water solubility of UA-G4K was found to be 1868-fold times higher than that of pristine UA, thus making its clinical application feasible.


RSC Advances ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (43) ◽  
pp. 24376-24385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen-Bin Kuang ◽  
Ri-Zhen Huang ◽  
Yi-Lin Fang ◽  
Gui-Bin Liang ◽  
Chen-Hui Yang ◽  
...  

A series of novel 2-chloro-3-(1H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)quinoline derivatives were designed and synthesized as antitumor agents under the combination principle. The antitumor activity and mechanisms were then evaluated.


2021 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucia M. Balsa ◽  
Enrique J. Baran ◽  
Ignacio E. León

: Copper is an essential element for most aerobic organisms, with an important function as a structural and catalytic cofactor, and in consequence, it is implicated in several biological actions. The relevant aspects of chemistry and biochemistry and the importance of copper compounds in medicine give us a comprehensive knowledge of the multifaceted applications of copper in physiology and physiopathology. In this review, we present an outline of the chemistry and the antitumor properties of copper complexes on breast, colon, and lung cancer cells focus on the role of copper in cancer, the relationship between structure-activity, molecular targets, and the study of the mechanism of action involved in its anticancer activity. This overview is expected to contribute to understanding the design, synthesis, uses of copper complexes as antitumor agents in the most common cancers.


Molecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 1209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liwei Ma ◽  
Haijun Wang ◽  
Jing Wang ◽  
Lei Liu ◽  
Song Zhang ◽  
...  

A series of novel steroidal 5α,8α-endoperoxide derivatives bearing semicarbazone (7a–g) or thiosemicarbazone (7h–k) side chain were designed, synthesized and evaluated for their cytotoxicities in four human cancer cell lines (HepG2, HCT-116, MCF-7, and A549) using the MTT assay in vitro. The results showed that compound 7j exhibited significant cytotoxic activity against HepG2 cells (IC50 = 3.52 μM), being more potent than ergosterol peroxide. Further cellular mechanism studies in HepG2 cells indicated that compound 7j triggered the mitochondrial-mediated apoptosis by decreasing mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), which was associated with up-regulation of Bax, down-regulation of Bcl-2, activation levels of the caspase cascade, and formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The above findings indicated that compound 7j may be used as a promising skeleton for antitumor agents with improved efficacy.


Molecules ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (9) ◽  
pp. 2281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ran An ◽  
Zhuang Hou ◽  
Jian-Teng Li ◽  
Hao-Nan Yu ◽  
Yan-Hua Mou ◽  
...  

Herein, fifteen new compounds containing coumarin, 1,2,3-triazole and benzoyl- substituted arylamine moieties were designed, synthesized and tested in vitro for their anticancer activity. The results showed that all tested compounds had moderate antiproliferative activity against MDA-MB-231, a human breast cancer cell line, under both normoxic and hypoxic conditions. Furthermore, the 4-substituted coumarin linked with benzoyl 3,4-dimethoxyaniline through 1,2,3-triazole (compound 5e) displayed the most prominent antiproliferative activities with an IC50 value of 0.03 μM, about 5000 times stronger than 4-hydroxycoumarin (IC50 > 100 μM) and 20 times stronger than doxorubicin (IC50 = 0.60 μM). Meanwhile, almost all compounds revealed general enhancement of proliferation-inhibiting activity under hypoxia, contrasted with normoxia. A docking analysis showed that compound 5e had potential to inhibit carbonic anhydrase IX (CA IX).


ChemInform ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 41 (40) ◽  
pp. no-no
Author(s):  
Min Sun ◽  
Xiaoqing Wu ◽  
Junqing Chen ◽  
Jin Cai ◽  
Meng Cao ◽  
...  

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document