New chiral derivatives of xanthones: Synthesis and investigation of enantioselectivity as inhibitors of growth of human tumor cell lines

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2014

Authors

Carla Fernandes (Author) FFUP; Kamonporn Masawang (Author) Other; Maria Elizabeth Tiritan (Author) Other; Emilia Sousa (Author) FFUP; Virginia de Lima (Author) Other; Carlos Afonso (Author) FFUP; Hassan Bousbaa (Author) Other; Wanwisa Sudprasert (Author) Other; Madalena Pedro (Author) Other; Madalena M Pinto (Author) FFUP

Journal

Title: Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry

Vol. 22

Pages: 1049-1062

ISSN: 0968-0896

Publisher: Elsevier

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 38 Citations

Scopus - 36 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Natural sciences > Chemical sciences

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-009-38R

DOI: 10.1016/j.bmc.2013.12.042

Abstract (EN): A highly efficient and practical methodology for synthesis of new chiral derivatives of xanthones (CDXs) in enantiomerically pure form has been developed. According to this approach, thirty CDXs (3-32) were synthesized by coupling a carboxyxanthone (1) and a carboxymethoxyxanthone (2) with both enantiomers of commercially available chiral building blocks, namely six amino alcohols, one amine and one amino ester. The activation of the carboxylic acid group of the xanthonic scaffold was carried out with the coupling reagent O-(benzotriazol-1-yl)-N-N-N'-N'-tetramethyluronium tetrafluoroborate (TBTU), in the presence of a catalytic amount of TEA in anhydrous THF. The coupling reactions with the chiral blocks were performed at room temperature with short reactions times, excellent yields (ranging from 94% to 99%), and very high enantiomeric excess. The synthesized CDXs were evaluated for their effect on the in vitro growth of three human tumor cell lines, namely A375-C5 (melanoma), MCF-7 (breast adenocarcinoma), and NCI-H460 (non-small cell lung cancer). The most active compound was CDX 15 being active in all human tumor cell lines with values of GI(50) of 32.15 +/- 2.03 mu M for A375-C5, 22.55 +/- 1.99 mu M for MCF-7, and 14.05 +/- 1.82 mu M for NCI-H460. Nevertheless, some CDXs showed cell-type selectivity. Furthermore, the growth inhibitory effects, in some cases, demonstrated to be depending on the stereochemistry of the CDXs. An interesting example was observed with the enantiomers 3 and 4, which demonstrated high enantioselectivity for MCF-7 and NCI-H460 cell lines. It can be inferred that the effects on the growth of the human tumor cell lines can be ascribed not only to the nature and positions of substituents on the xanthonic scaffold but also to the stereochemistry of the CDXs. Some considerations regarding structure-activity relationship within this class of compounds will be highlighted.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 14