Zidovudine Glycosylation by Filamentous Fungi Leads to a Better Redox Stability and Improved Cytotoxicity in B16F10 Murine Melanoma Cells.

Background: The strategic development of therapeutic agents, capable of being targeted at their active sites, has been a major goal in treatment of cancer. The delivery of drugs for tumors has as its main challenge the development of safe and effective drugs, since the goal of chemotherapy is to eliminate the tumor completely without affecting healthy cells. The aim of present study was to investigate the antioxidant, anticancer activities of zidovudine and its α-O-glycosylated derivative obtained by biosynthesis of a filamentous fungi, Cunninghamela echinulata.

Bioconversion of quercetin and rutin and the cytotoxicity activities of the transformed products.

Quercetin and rutin are well-know flavonoids. In spite of this, the comprehension of their metabolism is still incomplete. In this work, the cytotoxic activity of quercetin and rutin and its metabolites produced by metabolism of filamentous fungi was investigated.