Journal
BIOORGANIC & MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY
Volume 11, Issue 4, Pages 521-528Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/S0968-0896(02)00530-8
Keywords
-
Funding
- NCI NIH HHS [CA077433, CA39662] Funding Source: Medline
- NCRR NIH HHS [P41RR0954] Funding Source: Medline
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Appropriately substituted benzo[i]phenanthridines structurally related to nitidine, a benzo[c]phenanthridine alkaloid with antitumor activity, are active as topoisomerase 1-targeting agents. Studies on benzo[i]phenanthridines have indicated analogues that possess a 2,3-methylenedioxy moiety and at least one and preferably two methoxyl groups at the 8- and 9-positions, such as 8,9-dimethoxy-2,3-methylenedioxybenzo[i]phenanthridine, 2, are active as topoisomerase 1-targeting agents. Tetramethoxylated benzo[i]phenanthridines, wherein the 2,3-methylenedioxy moiety is replaced with methoxyl groups at the 2- and 3-position, are inactive as a topoisomerase 1-targeting agent. These results initially suggested that the 2,3-methylenedioxy moiety was critical to the retention of potent activity. Further studies revealed that 2,3-dimethoxy-8,9-methylenedioxybenzo[i]phenanthridine, 7a, is more potent than 2 as a topoisomerase 1-targeting agent. The observation that 2,3-dimethoxylated benzo[i]phenanthridines can actually exhibit enhanced activity prompted the present study in which several 8-substituted 2,3-dimethoxybenzo[i]phenanthridines were prepared and their pharmacological activities evaluated. The influence of NH2, CN, CH2OH, OBn, OCH3, OH, and NHCOCH3 substituents at the 8-position on the relative activity of these 2,3 -dimethoxybenzo[i]phenanthridines was examined. Relative to these derivatives, 7a was the most potent topoisomerase I-targeting agent, possessing similar cytotoxicity to that of nitidine in the human lymphoblast tumor cell line, RPMI8402. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available