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A series of 30-diethylphosphate derivatives of betulin were synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro cytotoxic activity against human cancer cell lines, such as amelanotic melanoma (C-32), glioblastoma (SNB-19), and two lines of breast cancer (T47D, MDA-MB-231). The molecular structure and activities of the new compounds were also compared with their 29-phosphonate analogs. Compounds 7a and 7b showed the highest activity against C-32 and SNB-19 cell lines. The IC 50 values for 7a were 2.15 and 0.91 μM, and, for 7b, they were 0.76 and 0.8 μM for the C-32 and SNB-19 lines, respectively. The most potent compounds, 7a and 7b , were tested for their effects on markers of apoptosis, such as H3, TP53, BAX, and BCL-2. For the whole series of phosphate derivatives, a lipophilicity study was performed, and the ADME parameters were calculated. The most active products were docked to the active site of the EGFR protein. The relative binding affinity of selected phosphate betulin derivatives toward EGFR was compared with standard erlotinib on the basis of ChemScore and K DEEP score. Positively, all derivatives docked inside the cavity and showed significant interactions. Moreover, a molecular dynamics study also reveals that ligands 7a , b form stable complexes and the plateau phase started after 7 ns.

Lupane-type pentacyclic triterpenes such as betulin and betulinic acid play an important role in the search for new therapies that would be effective in controlling viral infections. The aim of this study was the synthesis and evaluation of in vitro anti-HIV-1 activity for phosphate derivatives of 3-carboxyacylbetulin 3 - 5 as well as an in silico study of new compounds as potential ligands of the C-terminal domain of the HIV-1 capsid-spacer peptide 1 (CA-CTD-SP1) as a molecular target of HIV-1 maturation inhibitors. In vitro studies showed that 28-diethoxyphosphoryl-3- O -(3',3'-dimethylsuccinyl)betulin (compound 3 ), the phosphate analog of bevirimat (betulinic acid derivative, HIV-1 maturation inhibitor), has IC 50 (half maximal inhibitory concentration) equal to 0.02 μM. Compound 3 inhibits viral replication at a level comparable to bevirimat and is also more selective (selectivity indices = 1250 and 967, respectively). Molecular docking was used to examine the probable interaction between the phosphate derivatives of 3-carboxyacylbetulin and C-terminal domain (CTD) of the HIV-1 capsid (CA)-spacer peptide 1 (SP1) fragment of Gag protein, designated as CTD-SP1. Compared with interactions between bevirimat ( BVM ) and the protein, an increased number of strong interactions between ligand 3 and the protein, generated by the phosphate group, were observed. These compounds might have the potential to also inhibit SARS-CoV2 proteins, in as far as the intrinsically imprecise docking scores suggest.

Betulin derivatives exhibit an antiproliferative activity and have been tested for many cancer cell lines. This paper describes a new series of 3-phosphate derivatives of betulin bearing different substituents at C28 position. The synthesized compounds were tested in vitro for their antiproliferative effect against human leukemia (MV-4-11 and CCRF/CEM), lung carcinoma (A549), prostate cancer (DU 145), melanoma (Hs 294T) cell lines, and murine leukemia P388. To explore the possible mechanism of anticancer activity for the most in vitro active compounds (4, 5, 7 and 8) and betulin, molecular docking was performed to the binding sites of potential anticancer targets, described for the various triterpene derivatives, including topoisomerase I and II, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGFR), transcription factor NF-κB, anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPARγ). According to the results of the docking, the best fit to the binding pocket of PPARγ was shown by compound 4., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

In this study, a series of regioisomeric acetylenic sulfamoylquinolines are designed, synthesized, and tested in vitro for their antiproliferative activity against three human breast cacer cell lines (T47D, MCF-7, and MDA-MB-231) and a human normal fibroblast (HFF-1) by 4-[3-(4-iodophenyl)-2-(4-nitrophenyl)-2 H -5-tetrazolio]-1,3-benzene disulfonate (WST-1) assay. The antiproliferative activity of the tested acetylenic quinolinesulfonamides is comparable to that of cisplatin. The bioassay results demonstrate that most of the tested compounds show potent antitumor activities, and that some compounds exhibit better effects than the positive control cisplatin against various cancer cell lines. Among these compounds, 4-(3-propynylthio)-7-[ N -methyl- N -(3-propynyl)sulfamoyl]quinoline shows significant antiprolierative activity against T47D cells with IC 50 values of 0.07 µM. In addition, 2-(3-Propynylthio)-6-[ N -methyl- N -(3-propynyl)sulfa-moyl]quinoline and 2-(3-propynylseleno)-6-[ N -methyl- N -(3-propynyl)sulfamoyl]quinoline display highly effective atitumor activity against MDA-MB-231 cells, with IC 50 values of 0.09 and 0.50 µM, respectively. Furthermore, most of the tested compounds show a weak cytotoxic effect against the normal HFF-1 cell line. Additionally, in order to suggest a mechanism of action for their activity, all compounds are docked into the binding site of two human cytochrome P450 (CYP) isoenzymes. These data indicate that some of the title compounds display significant cytotoxic activity, possibly targeting the CYPs pathways.

The natural 7-amino-5,8-quinolinodione antibiotics were the substrate for the NQO1 protein. The structure-activity relationship showed that the 5,8-quinolinedione moiety was responsible for the interaction with the enzyme. In our research, we presented the synthesis, cytotoxic activity and theoretical study of a 5,8-quinolinedione compound as a potential inhibitor of the NQO1 enzyme. Mono and disubstituted alkynyloxy derivatives of the 5,8-quinolinedione were synthesized and characterized by 1 H, 13 C NMR, IR and HR-MS spectra. Newly synthesized derivatives were also tested for their biological activity in vitro against the human cancer cell lines. They showed high cytotoxic activity depending on the type of substituent and the employed tumor cell lines. Moreover, two breast cancer cell lines, MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7, were chosen for analysis as they are characterized by different NQO1 protein levels. It was found that cytotoxic activities of all studied compounds increased against the cell line with a higher NQO1 protein level. The molecular docking was used to examine the probable interaction between the molecules of alkynyloxy derivatives and human NAD[P]H-quinone oxidoreductase (NQO1) protein. The computational studies showed that the 5,8-quinolinedione moiety of all docked compounds was located deeply in the hydrophobic matrix of the active site near the side chains of aromatic residues in positions Trp 105, Phe 178, Tyr 126 and Tyr 128. In every case, introduction of aromatic moieties into the 5,8-quinolinedione molecule led to an increase in the binding affinity in relation to the 6,7-dichloro-5,8-quinolinedione., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)