Synthesis and in vitro antitumor activity of new octapeptide analogs of somatostatin containing unnatural amino acids

Some modified octapeptide analogs of somatostatin with the following structure D-Phe-c(Cys-Phe-D-Trp-Xxx-Yyy-Cys)-Thr-NH2, where Xxx is Lys or Orn and Yyy is Aib (alpha-aminoisobutyric acid), Ac5c (1-aminocyclopentanecarboxylic acid) or Ac6c (1-aminocyclohexane carboxylic acid) have been synthesized. The peptides were prepared by standard Fmoc-solid phase peptide chemistry method. The direct disulphide bond formation has been employed on the solid phase by Tl(CF3CO2)(3). The cytotoxic effects of the compounds were tested in vitro against a panel of tumor cell lines: HT-29 (human colorectal cancer cell line), MDA-MB-23 (human breast cancer cell line), Hep-G2 (human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line), HeLa (cervical cancer cell line) and normal human diploid cell line Lep-3. The new peptides exhibited different concentration-dependent antiproliferative effect against the tumor cell lines after 24 h treatment. The compounds were most effective to the HT-29 tumor cells. The compound 4C (Orn(5), Aib(6)) demonstrated the most pronounced antiproliferative effects on HT-29 cells with the IC50 = 0.0199 mu M.