Cephalotaxine-type alkaloids with antiproliferation effects from the branches and leaves of Cephalotaxus fortunei var. alpina.

Eight cephalotaxine-type alkaloids (1-8), including two new compounds cephafortunines A and B (1-2), were isolated from the branches and leaves of Cephalotaxus fortunei var. alpina. Their structures were identified by a series of spectroscopic methods (MS, UV, IR, 1D, and 2D NMR) and comparison with the reported data of known analogs. The absolute configurations of 1 and 2 were determined by electronic circular dichroism (ECD) calculations. 1-8 were evaluated for their in vitro antiproliferation effects against two human leukemia cell lines (U937 and HL-60). All compounds showed different levels of antiproliferation effects against U937 cells with GI50 values of 4.21-23.70 µM. 4 and 5 were the most active against U937 cells with GI50 values of 4.21 and 6.58 µM and against HL-60 cells with GI50 values of 6.66 and 6.70 µM, respectively. 4 and 5 arrested HL-60 cell cycle in G0/G1 phase.

Cephalotaxus Alkaloids.

Cephalotaxus alkaloids represent a family of plant secondary metabolites known for 60 years. Significant activity against leukemia in mice was demonstrated for extracts of Cephalotaxus. Cephalotaxine (CET) (1), the major alkaloid of this series was isolated from Cephalotaxus drupacea species by Paudler in 1963. The subsequent discovery of promising antitumor activity among new Cephalotaxus derivatives reported by Chinese, Japanese, and American teams triggered extensive structure elucidation and biological studies in this family. The structural feature of this cephalotaxane family relies mainly on its tetracyclic alkaloid backbone, which comprises an azaspiranic 1-azaspiro[4.4]nonane unit (rings C and D) and a benzazepine ring system (rings A and B), which is linked by its C3 alcohol function to a chiral oxygenated side chain by a carboxylic function alpha to a tetrasubstituted carbon center. The botanical distribution of these alkaloids is limited to the Cephalotaxus genus (Cephalotaxaceae). The scope of biological activities of the Cephalotaxus alkaloids is mainly centered on the antileukemic activity of homoharringtonine (HHT) (2), which in particular demonstrated marked benefits in the treatment of orphan myeloid leukemia and was approved as soon as 2009 by European Medicine Agency and by US Food and Drug Administration in 2012. Its exact mechanism of action was partly elucidated and it was early recognized that HHT (2) inhibited protein synthesis at the level of the ribosome machinery. Interestingly, after a latency period of two decades, the topic of Cephalotaxus alkaloids reemerged as a prolific source of new natural structures. To date, more than 70 compounds have been identified and characterized. Synthetic studies also regained attention during the past two decades, and numerous methodologies were developed to access the first semisynthetic HHT (2) of high purity suitable for clinical studies, and then high grade enantiomerically pure CET (1), HHT (2), and analogs.

Inhibition of chikungunya virus replication by harringtonine, a novel antiviral that suppresses viral protein expression.

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a mosquito-transmitted virus that has reemerged as a significant public health threat in the last decade. Since the 2005-2006 chikungunya fever epidemic in the Indian Ocean island of La Réunion, millions of people in more than 40 countries have been infected. Despite this, there is currently no antiviral treatment for chikungunya infection. In this study, an immunofluorescence-based screening platform was developed to identify potential inhibitors of CHIKV infection. A primary screen was performed using a highly purified natural product compound library, and 44 compounds exhibiting ≥70% inhibition of CHIKV infection were identified as positive hits. Among these, four were selected for dose-dependent inhibition assays to confirm their anti-CHIKV activity. Harringtonine, a cephalotaxine alkaloid, displayed potent inhibition of CHIKV infection (50% effective concentration [EC(50)] = 0.24 µM) with minimal cytotoxicity and was selected for elucidation of its antiviral mechanism. Time-of-addition studies, cotreatment assays, and direct transfection of viral genomic RNA indicated that harringtonine inhibited an early stage of the CHIKV replication cycle which occurred after viral entry into cells. In addition, quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR) and Western blot analyses indicated that harringtonine affects CHIKV RNA production as well as viral protein expression. Treatment of harringtonine against Sindbis virus, a related alphavirus, suggested that harringtonine could inhibit other alphaviruses. This study suggests for the first time that harringtonine exerts its antiviral effects by inhibiting CHIKV viral protein synthesis.

Completed preparative separation of alkaloids from Cephaltaxus fortunine by step-pH-gradient high-speed counter-current chromatography.

Cephalotaxine-type alkaloids are the anti-cancer components in twigs, leaves, roots and seeds of Cephalotaxus fortunine. It is very important to use the limited resource by finding an efficient purification technology of the alkaloids. Separation of cephalotaxine-type alkaloids in Cephalotaxus fortunine by step-pH-gradient high-speed counter-current chromatography (step-pH-gradient HSCCC) was studied in this paper. The step-pH-gradient HSCCC was performed on a HSCCC instrument equipped with a 400-mL column, using the upper phase of ethyl acetate-n-hexane-water, with added 0.01% trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) as stationary phase, and the lower phase of ethyl acetate-n-hexane-water, with added 2% NH(4)OH, 0.2% NH(4)OH and 0.05% TFA as mobile phase. For each separation, 800mg of extract of cephalotaxine-type alkaloids was separated to yield 9.3mg of drupacine, 15.9mg of wilsonine, 130.4mg of cephalotaxine, 64.8mg of epi-wilsonine, 12.8mg of fortunine and 35.6mg of acetylcephalotaxine with purities 81.2%, 85.7%, 95.3%, 97.5%, 89.1% and 96.2%, respectively. The recovery of each alkaloid was more than 90%. The structures of the six alkaloids were identified by electrospray ionization mass spectrum (ESI-MS) and (1)H and (13)C NMR.

Further studies of the norditerpene (+)-harringtonolide isolated from Cephalotaxus harringtonia var. drupacea: absolute configuration, cytotoxic and antifungal activities.

Harringtonolide (= hainanolide) is a complex polycyclic fused norditerpene isolated from CEPHALOTAXUS HARRINGTONIA var. DRUPACEA. In spite of its appealing biological properties - we measured an IC (50) of 43 nM on KB cells and a significant antifungal activity - its absolute configuration has not yet been firmly established. This was done herein using X-ray anomalous scattering after bromination of the tropone ring, unambiguously giving the stereochemistry 5 R,6 R,7 S,13 S,14 S,15 R,16 R. Detailed IN VITRO biological measurements are provided.

HPLC-electrospray ionization-MS-MS analysis of Cephalotaxus harringtonia leaves and enhancement of the extraction efficiency of alkaloids therein by SFE.

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method is developed for use in the electrospray mass spectrometric (MS)-MS analysis of alkaloids contained in Cephalotaxus harringtonia leaves. Nine alkaloids having ester groups can be separated and detected with good sensitivity. The MS and MS-MS spectra obtained provides information on their chemical structures. Supercritical fluid extraction is also applied in order to improve the extraction efficiency of Cephalotaxus alkaloids such as cephalotaxine, harringtonine, homoharringtonine, and isoharringtonine. When carbon dioxide-methanol-water (80:18:2, v/v) is used the extraction yield is found to be higher than that using the other supercritical solvents evaluated and conventional organic solvent extraction.

Modifier effects on supercritical CO2 extraction efficiency of cephalotaxine from Cephalotaxus wilsoniana leaves.

The effects of modifiers such as methanol, water, diethylamine in methanol (10 v/v %), and diethylamine in water (10 v/v %) were investigated at three different concentrations (1, 5, and 10 v/v %) of the modifiers in supercritical CO2 (SC-CO2) in order to enhance the supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) efficiency of cephalotaxine from Cephalotaxus wilsoniana leaves. Among the modifiers employed, methanol basified with diethylamine was found to greatly enhance the extraction efficiency relative to any other modifiers employed. The results suggest that cephalotaxine in plant matrices may be readily changed from SC-CO2-insoluble salt to SC-CO2-soluble free base by basified modifiers. In addition, SC-CO2 modified with basified methanol could enhance the extraction efficiency of cephalotaxine more than 30% when compared to the conventional organic solvent extraction.

[Studies on urinary metabolites of HH07A, a derivative of hainanensine, in rats].

The metabolism of HH07A in the rat has been investigated by GC-MS. After oral administration of HH07A, the rat urine was passed through a macroporous XAD-2 resin column and eluted with methanol. The methanol extract was hydrolyzed with glucuronidase, extracted with dichloromethane and concentrated for TMS derivatization with GC-MS. The mass spectra of HH07A and its four metabolites as well as their derivatives were presented. The structures of the metabolites were proposed and the in vivo metabolic pathway of HH07A was given in Figure 6.

[The in vitro metabolism of hainanensine derivative HH07A by rat liver microsomes].

The metabolism of hainanensine derivative HH07A has been studied in vitro with rat microsomes. A method of HPLC-DAD was developed for screening the metabolites from the microsomal incubation system. Two metabolites were found according to their UV spectra. One of them was extracted and purified with preparative HPLC and TLC, its chemical structure was identified by UV, IR, MS and NMR.

Quantitation of harringtonine and homoharringtonine in serum by high-performance liquid chromatography.

Harringtonine and homoharringtonine are naturally occurring alkaloids with demonstrated antineoplastic activity against certain types of leukemias in cell cultures, experimental animals, and initial clinical trials. Sample preparation consists of addition of the internal standard (one compound used as the internal standard for the other), solvent extraction with methylene chloride, washing with ammonium formate, and evaporation to dryness. The residue is dissolved in the mobile phase (40% methanol-60% 0.1 M ammonium formate) and an aliquot is chromatographed on a microC 18 reversed-phase column (flow-rate 1.5 ml/min). Peaks are detected with a spectrophotofluorimeter by monitoring the emission at 320 nm with excitation wavelength of 280 nm. Limit of detection is 10 ng/ml (20 nM) for both compounds; reproducible quantitation can be made to 30 ng/ml (60 nM).

The genus Cephalotaxus: source of homoharringtonine and related anticancer alkaloids.

Various phases of research on Ciphalotaxus alkaloids are summarized, including their discovery, nature of antitumor activity, isolation, structural characterization, synthesis, biogenesis, and mechanism of physiologic action.