Design, Preparation and Studies Regarding Cytotoxic Properties of Glycyrrhetinic Acid Derivatives.

Glycyrrhetinic acid (GA) is a natural product with certain antitumor activity. In order to enhance the cytotoxicity, a total of eighteen derivatives of GA were designed and synthesized. Their cytotoxicity against MDA-MB-231cells (human breast cancer cells) and HeLa cells (human cervical cancer cells), were evaluated by the MTT method (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide).

Design and preparation of derivatives of oleanolic and glycyrrhetinic acids with cytotoxic properties.

Background: The structural modification of natural products with the aim to improve the anticancer activity is a popular current research direction. The pentacyclic triterpenoid compounds oleanolic acid (OA) and glycyrrhetinic acid (GA) are distributed widely in nature.

Methods: In this study, various oleanolic acids and glycyrrhetinic acids were designed and synthesized by using the combination principle.

Design and Synthesis of New Anticancer Glycyrrhetinic Acids and Oleanolic Acids.

A series of new glycyrrhetinic acids and oleanolic acids has been designed and synthesized based on the principles of combinatorial chemical synthesis. Their anticancer activities were further studied by using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) method with hepatocellular carcinoma (Hep-G2), breast cancer (MCF-7) cell lines and a normal hepatic cell (LO2). Cytotoxicity tests (in vitro) indicated that compound 6a showed the highest cytotoxicity with the lowest IC values of 23.