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Phloroglucinol derivatives as anti-tumor agents: synthesis, biological activity evaluation and molecular docking studies

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Abstract

Phloroglucinol compounds isolated from Dryopteris fragrans (L.) Schott showed a variety of biological activities, such as anticancer and anti-inflammatory. In this study, we have made a number of modifications around the scaffold of phloroglucinol and synthesized phloroglucinol derivatives A1–A9, B1–B9, and C1–C3. We synthesized these compounds and investigated their effect on four human cancer cell lines (A-549, MCF-7, Hela, HepG2 cell lines) via MTT assay in vitro. The results revealed that all compounds exhibited certain antiproliferative activities on cancer cell lines and excellent inhibitory effects on MCF-7, in which compound C2 was the best with the IC50 value of 18.49 μM, exceeding that of 5-fluorouracil. Moreover, the cell apoptosis test showed that compound C2 induced apoptosis in a concentration-dependent manner. Furthermore, the results of molecular docking analysis explained the probable interaction between the active compounds and active sites of target protein 4I22 and 1OG5.

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Acknowledgements

The work was supported by the Innovation and strengthening project of Guangdong Pharmaceutical University-Special Innovation including Project of Guangdong Education Department (2017KTSCX107, 2020KZDZX1131, 2020ZDZX3026, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University [2020]96), and “Guangdong Province Graduate Education Innovation Program in 2020 and 2021(2021JGXM071)”, Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province (2017ZC0199), Medical Scientific Research Foundation of Guangdong Province (B2019004), Special fund for economic and technological development of Longgang District (LGKCYLWS2020103).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Fuli Zhang, Qingfu Lai, Weihong Lai & Lianbao Ye

  2. School of Life Sciences and Biopharmaceutics, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Ming Li & Xiaobao Jin

  3. Guangdong Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Bioactive Substances, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Xiaobao Jin

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  1. Fuli Zhang
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  3. Weihong Lai
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  4. Ming Li
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Correspondence to Lianbao Ye.

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These authors contributed equally: Fuli Zhang, Qingfu Lai.

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Zhang, F., Lai, Q., Lai, W. et al. Phloroglucinol derivatives as anti-tumor agents: synthesis, biological activity evaluation and molecular docking studies. Med Chem Res 31, 165–176 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00044-021-02828-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00044-021-02828-0

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