Synthesis and Cell Death Mechanism of a Militarin Derivative.

Militarin, a novel anticancer substance from a caterpillar-grown traditional insect-flower ( Cordyceps militaris), was previously isolated and characterized as an ether compound of 4- tert-octylphenol and a nonaethylene glycol. Among militarin analogs with different numbers of ethylene glycol substructure, the analog with four ethylene glycol substructure ( M4EG) exhibited potent anticancer activities. A facile and scalable synthetic pathway of the M4EG was developed and the mechanism of cell death by the M4EG against lung adenocarcinoma epithelial cell line ( A549) was explored. The results of this study showed that apoptosis of M4EG toward A549 cells is mediated by a caspase-dependent death-signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]