Synthesis of amino acid-modified ursolic acid derivatives and their antitumor activity against gastric carcinoma / 中国药学杂志

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To design and synthesize a series of novel amino acid-modified ursolic acid derivatives containing primary amino-group and to investigate their antitumor activities against gastric carcinama in vitro. METHODS: 1, 2-Ethylenediamine was added to the C28 site of ursolic acid(UA) and the resulting intermediates were conjugated to amino acid to get the amino acid-modified ursolic acid derivatives. The effects of these UA derivatives on the growth of BGC823 cells and AGS cells were assessed by MTT assay. Meanwhile, Annexin V/PI dual staining and cell cycle analysis were performed to investigate the anti-tumor mechanism. RESULTS: Most of the derivatives exhibited more powerful cytotoxicity than UA against these two gastric cancer cell lines. The apoptosis of BGC823 cells incubated with compound 3 or compound 4 were observed. Cell cycle analysis showed that compound 3-6 triggered 44.69% -92.64% of the treated AGS cells into apoptotic status. CONCLUSION: Potent anticancer abilities of these UA derivatives bearing primary amido are achieved by inducing apoptosis. Introducing primary amino group to UA is an effective way to develop new UA derivatives with enhanced anti-proliferative activities. Copyright 2012 by the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association.