Asymmetric synthesis and study of biological activity of (epi-)benzoanalogues of bioactive phenanthroquinolizidine alkaloids

Screening of Phenanthroquinolizidine Alkaloid Derivatives for Inducing Cell Death of L1210 Leukemia Cells with Negative and Positive P-glycoprotein Expression

We describe the screening of a set of cryptopleurine derivatives, namely thienoquinolizidine derivatives and (epi-)benzo analogs with bioactive phenanthroquinolizidine alkaloids that induce cytotoxic effects in the mouse lymphocytic leukemia cell line L1210. We used three variants of L1210 cells: i) parental cells (S) negative for P-glycoprotein (P-gp) expression; ii) P-glycoprotein positive cells (R), obtained by selection with vincristine; iii) P-glycoprotein positive cells (T), obtained by stable transfection with a human gene encoding P-glycoprotein. We identified the most effective derivative 11 with a median lethal concentration of ≈13 μM in all three L1210 cell variants. The analysis of the apoptosis/necrosis induced by derivative 11 revealed that cell death was the result of apoptosis with late apoptosis characteristics. Derivative 11 did not induce a strong alteration in the proportion of cells in the G1, S or G2/M phase of the cell cycle, but a strong increase in the number of S, R and T cells in the subG1 phase was detected. These findings indicated that we identified the most effective inducer of cell death, derivative 11, and this derivative effectively induced cell death in S, R and T cells at similar inhibitory concentrations independent of P-gp expression.

Crystal, molecular and electronic structure of (5S,11R,11aS)-11-hydroxy-5-methyl-1,2,3,4,5,6,11,11a-octahydropyrido[1,2-b]isoquinolin-5-ium iodide

The title compound, C14H20INO, is a molecule with three stereogenic centres. It absolute configuration was derived from the synthesis and confirmed by structure determination (AD, Flack (Parsons’) parameter: 0.031 (8)). The expected stereochemistry of atoms N1 was confirmed to be S, C5 was confirmed to S, C6 was confirmed to R. The central N-heterocyclic ring is not planar and adopts a half-chair conformation. A calculation of least-squares planes showed that these rings are puckered in such a manner that the five atoms: C5, C6, C7, C12 and C13 (the second ring: C1, C2, C3, C4, C5 and N1) are planar, while atom N1 is displaced from these plane with the out-of-plane displacement of −0.694 (4) and −0.670 (5) Å in the second ring, respectively. Dihedral angle between the planes of the central N-heterocyclic rings is 23.4 (2)°. Crystal structure is also stabilized by C—H···O hydrogen interactions.