Metal Zn(II), Cu(II), Ni (II) complexes of ursodeoxycholic acid as putative anticancer agents

A novel heteroleptic Cu(II)-phenanthroline-UDCA complex as lipoxygenase inhibitor and ER-stress inducer in cancer cell lines

A new heteroleptic copper(II) compound named C0-UDCA was prepared by reaction of [Cu(phen)₂(OH₂)](ClO₄)₂ (C0) with the bile ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA). The resulting compound is able to inhibit the lipoxygenase enzyme showing more efficacy than the precursors C0 and UDCA. Molecular docking simulations clarified the interactions with the enzyme as due to allosteric modulation. The new complex shows antitumoral effect on ovarian (SKOV-3) and pancreatic (PANC-1) cancer cells at the Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) level by activating the Unfolded Protein Response. In particular, the chaperone BiP, the pro-apoptotic protein CHOP and the transcription factor ATF6 are upregulated in the presence of C0-UDCA. The combination of Intact Cell MALDI-MS and statistical analysis have allowed us to discriminate between untreated and treated cells based on their mass spectrometry fingerprints.

Bile-Acid-Appended Triazolyl Aryl Ketones: Design, Synthesis, In Vitro Anticancer Activity and Pharmacokinetics in Rats

A library of bile-acid-appended triazolyl aryl ketones was synthesized and characterized by detailed spectroscopic techniques such as ¹H and ¹³C NMR, HRMS and HPLC. All the synthesized conjugates were evaluated for their cytotoxicity at 10 µM against MCF-7 (human breast adenocarcinoma) and 4T1 (mouse mammary carcinoma) cells. In vitro cytotoxicity studies on the synthesized conjugates against MCF-7 and 4T1 cells indicated one of the conjugate 6cf to be most active against both cancer cell lines, with IC₅₀ values of 5.71 µM and 8.71 µM, respectively, as compared to the reference drug docetaxel, possessing IC₅₀ values of 9.46 µM and 13.85 µM, respectively. Interestingly, another compound 6af (IC₅₀ = 2.61 µM) was found to possess pronounced anticancer activity as compared to the reference drug docetaxel (IC₅₀ = 9.46 µM) against MCF-7. In addition, the potent compounds (6cf and 6af) were found to be non-toxic to normal human embryonic kidney cell line (HEK 293), as evident from their cell viability of greater than 86%. Compound 6cf induces higher apoptosis in comparison to 6af (46.09% vs. 33.89%) in MCF-7 cells, while similar apoptotic potential was observed for 6cf and 6af in 4T1 cells. The pharmacokinetics of 6cf in Wistar rats showed an MRT of 8.47 h with a half-life of 5.63 h. Clearly, these results suggest 6cf to be a potential candidate for the development of anticancer agents.

Synthesis, characterization and biological evaluation of bile acid-aromatic/heteroaromatic amides linked via amino acids as anti-cancer agents

A series of bile acid (Cholic acid and Deoxycholic acid) aryl/heteroaryl amides linked via α-amino acid were synthesized and tested against 3 human cancer cell-lines (HT29, MDAMB231, U87MG) and 1 human normal cell line (HEK293T). Some of the conjugates showed promising results to be new anticancer agents with good in vitro results. More specifically, Cholic acid derivatives 6a (1.35 μM), 6c (1.41 μM) and 6m (4.52 μM) possessing phenyl, benzothiazole and 4-methylphenyl groups showed fairly good activity against the breast cancer cell line with respect to Cisplatin (7.21 μM) and comparable with respect to Doxorubicin (1 μM), while 6e (2.49μM), 6i (2.46 μM) and 6m (1.62 μM) showed better activity against glioblastoma cancer cell line with respect to both Cisplatin (2.60 μM) and Doxorubicin (3.78 μM) drugs used as standards. Greater than 65% of the compounds were found to be safer on human normal cell line.

Anti-proliferative effect of Fe(III) complexed with 1-(2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde)-4-aminosalicylhydrazone in HepG2 cells

We previously developed a chelating ligand, 1-(2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde)-4-aminosalicylhydrazone (HMB-ASH), which can chelate Fe(III) to form a complex. The HMB-ASH-Fe(III) complex exhibits a dose-dependent anti-proliferative effect in HepG2 cells, whereas the ligand, HMB-ASH, and Fe(III) alone had no considerable effect. The HMB-ASH-Fe(III) complex was composed of Fe(III):HMB-ASH (1:2), as determined by high-performance liquid chromatography with high-resolution mass spectrometry. The IC50 value was approximately 20 μM, which was comparable to those of the anti-cancer drugs oxaliplatin (OXP) and etoposide (ETP) under the same conditions. Similar to OXP and ETP, HMB-ASH-Fe(III) induced apoptosis in HepG2 cells, as revealed by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase fluorescein-12-dUTP nick end labeling assay.