Synthesis of heterocycle-modified betulinic acid derivatives as antitumor agents

A series of novel heterocycle-modified betulinic acid (BA) derivatives were synthesized and investigated for their activity against the growth of eight non-drug resistant and one multidrug-resistant tumor cell line using a sulforhodamine B (SRB) assay. The most active compound 17 showed an average IC50 1.19 μM, which was about 20 times more potent than the lead compound BA. It is amazing that for most synthetic saturated N-heterocycle derivatives, MCF-7/ADR was the most sensitive tumor cells, especially 17 showed the most potent antitumor activity (IC50 = 0.33 μM) on this multidrug-resistant tumor cell line, that was 117 times more potent than BA. Most of the tested compounds displayed less toxic on human fibroblasts (HAF) in comparison with the tumor cell lines. The cytometry and transwell migration assays were used to test the ability of 17 to induce apoptosis and inhibit metastasis on tumor cell lines respectively.