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Updated: Mar 8, 2026
A Direct, Early Stage Guanidinylation Protocol for the Synthesis of Complex Aminoguanidine-containing Natural Products
Published on: September 9, 2016
Effects on Energy Metabolism of Two Guanidine Molecules, (Boc)2 -Creatine and Metformin
Patrizia Garbati1, Silvia Ravera2, Sonia Scarfì3
1Department of Neuroscience, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal-Infantile Sciences, University of Genova, Largo Paolo Daneo 3, Genova 16132, Italy.
Abstract:
Several enzymes are involved in the energy production, becoming a possible target for new anti-cancer drugs. In this paper, we used biochemical and in silico studies to evaluate the effects of two guanidine molecules, (Boc)2 -creatine and metformin, on creatine kinase, an enzyme involved in the regulation of intracellular energy levels. Our results show that both drugs inhibit creatine kinase activity; however, (Boc)2 -creatine displays a competitive inhibition, while metformin acts with a non-competitive mechanism. Moreover, (Boc)2 -creatine is able to inhibit the activity of hexokinase with a non-competitive mechanism. Considering that creatine kinase and hexokinase are involved in energy metabolism, we evaluated the effects of (Boc)2 -creatine and metformin on the ATP/AMP ratio and on cellular proliferation in healthy fibroblasts, human breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-468), a human neuroblastoma cell line (SH-SY5Y), a human Hodgkin lymphoma cell line (KMH2). We found that healthy fibroblasts were only partially affected by (Boc)2 -creatine, while both ATP/AMP ratio and viability of the three cancer cell lines were significantly decreased. By inhibiting both creatine kinase and hexokinase, (Boc)2 -creatine appears as a promising new agent in anticancer treatment. Further research is needed to understand what types of cancer cells are most suitable to treatment by this new compound. J. Cell. Biochem. 118: 2700-2711, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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