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Synthesis, Biological Evaluation of Fluorescent 23-Hydroxybetulinic Acid Probes, and Their Cellular Localization
Hong Yao1, Guoxiang Wei1, Yanpeng Liu1
1Department of Medicinal Chemistry and State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, China Pharmaceutical University, 24 Tong Jia Xiang, Nanjing 210009, China.
Abstract:
23-Hydroxybetulinic acid (23-HBA) is a complex lupane triterpenoid, which has attracted increasing attention as an anticancer agent. However, its detailed mechanism of anticancer action remains elusive so far. To reveal its anticancer mode of action, a series of fluorescent 23-HBA derivatives conjugated with coumarin dyes were designed, synthesized, and evaluated for their antiproliferative activities. Subcellular localization and uptake profile studies of representative fluorescent 23-HBA probe 26c were performed in B16F10 cells, and the results suggested that probe 26c was rapidly taken up into B10F10 cells in a dose-dependent manner and mitochondrion was the main site of its accumulation. Further mode of action studies implied that the mitochondrial pathway was involved in 23-HBA-mediated apoptosis. Together, our results provided new clues for revealing the molecular mechanism of natural product 23-HBA for its further development into an antitumor agent.
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