ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The structure modification of steroids is commonly used to change the biological activity of steroids in medicinal chemistry. In recent years, it has been found that some derivatives derived from the structural modification of cholesterol display good inhibitory activity against tumor cell proliferation in vitro. METHODS: Using cholesterol as the starting material, different types of B-norcholesterol-6-amide derivatives were synthesized by the reaction of 6-carboxyl-B-norcholesterol with different alkyl amines or 6-amino-B-norcholesterol with different acyl chlorides. The inhibitory activity of compounds on the proliferation of tumor cell lines was investigated by the MTT method. RESULTS: The results showed that the B-norcholesterol-6-amide compounds displayed distinct cytotoxicity against Sk-Ov-3 cells but caused no obvious damage against HEK-293T cells. Additionally, the steroidal amide derivatives formed from 6-amino-B-norcholesterol showed stronger cytotoxicity than those produced from 6-carboxyl-B-norcholesterol. Specially, compounds with chloroalkyl structure displayed significant inhibitory activity against all tumor cells tested. Among them, compounds 19-21 showed cytotoxicity like 2-methoxyestradiol as a positive control, and the IC50 value of compound 20 on HeLa cells was 3.9 µM. CONCLUSION: After introducing chloroalkyl acyl groups into 6-position of 6-amino-B-norcholesterol, the cytotoxicity of resulting B-norcholesterol-6-amide compounds can be greatly enhanced.
Subject(s)
Antineoplastic Agents , Humans , HeLa Cells , Antineoplastic Agents/chemistry , Amides/pharmacology , Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor , Cell Line, Tumor , Steroids/chemistry , Steroids/pharmacology , Cell Proliferation , Cholesterol/pharmacology , Structure-Activity Relationship , Molecular StructureABSTRACT
Using cholesterol, stigmasterol and sitosterol as starting materials, a series of 7-subsitituted-ster-3-yl 2-methoxybenzoate analogs were prepared through reacting with 2-methoxybenzoyl chloride and introducing some function groups, such as carbonyl, hydroxyl and various thiosemicarbazones, at 7-position of steroidal nucleus. The structures of these new compounds were characterized by IR, NMR and HRMS. Their antiproliferative activities were evaluated by using several types of cancer cells. Interestingly, the compounds displayed potent antiproliferative activity against CNE-2 (nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell lines), BEL-7402 (human liver cancer cell lines) and HepG2 (human liver cancer cell lines), suggesting that they have potential to be drug candidates for cancer treatment.
