A series of novel conjugates of podophyllotoxin and norcantharidin was designed using association strategy, and synthesized by coupling 4'-demethylepipodophyllotoxin with N-amino acid norcantharimides, and their cytotoxicitiy was evaluated against four human tumor cell lines (A-549, HepG2, HeLa and HCT-8) and normal human diploid fibroblast line WI-38. These compounds exhibited potent cytotoxic effects on tumor cell lines, whereas it was less toxic to WI-38 cells than anticancer drug VP-16 or its parent compound norcantharidin. Furthermore, conjugates 7a, 7c, 7f, 7j, 7k and 7l displayed excellent PP2A inhibition activity with IC50 values of 0.49-9.52 μM. The most potent compound 7l also exhibited topoisomeraseⅡinhibition activity. In addition, compound 7l induced cell-cycle arrest in the G2/M phase in HepG2 by regulating levels of cyclinB1 and cdc2.
Keywords: Cantharidin; Cell-cycle arrest; PP2A; Podophyllotoxin; TOP-Ⅱ.
Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.