Jatrophane diterpenoids from Euphorbia sororia as potent modulators against P-glycoprotein-based multidrug resistance

Five new (1-5) and ten known (6-15) jatrophane diterpenoids were isolated from the fructus of Euphorbia sororia and their structures were elucidated by extensive spectroscopic analysis. The absolute configurations of compounds 1 and 4 were confirmed by X-ray crystallographic analysis. Cytotoxicity and anti-multidrug resistance effects of these jatrophane diterpenoids were evaluated in multidrug-resistant MCF-7/ADR breast cancer cells with an overexpression of P-glycoprotein (P-gp). Eight compounds (1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, and 15) showed promising chemoreversal abilities compared to verapamil (VRP). The most potent compound, Euphosorophane A (1), possessed many advantages, including (1) high potency (EC₅₀ = 92.68 ± 18.28 nM) in reversing P-gp-mediated resistance to doxorubicin (DOX), low cytotoxicity, and a high therapeutic index, (2) potency in reversing resistance to other cytotoxic agents associated with MDR, and (3) inhibition of P-gp-mediated Rhodamine123 (Rh123) efflux function in MCF-7/ADR cells. The results of the Western blot analysis indicated that the multidrug resistance (MDR) reversal induced by 1 was not due to the inhibiton of P-gp expression. Compound 1 stimulated P-gp-ATPase activity and caused the dose-dependent inhibition of DOX transport activity. Lineweaver-Burk and Dixon plots implied that 1 was a competitive inhibitor to DOX in the binding site of P-gp with a Ki of 0.49-0.50 μM. Our data suggested that 1 had a high binding affinity toward the DOX recognition site of P-gp. This resulted in inhibiting DOX transport, increasing intracellular DOX concentration, and finally resensitizing MCF-7/ADR to DOX. In addition, we discussed some added contents in the structure-activity relationship (SAR) of jatrophane diterpenoids.