Inhibition of LPS-stimulated NO production in mouse macrophage-like cells by azulenequinones.

Azulenequinone derivatives have been reported to display a broad spectrum of biological activities, but study at the cellular level has been limited. The effect of twenty-seven azulenequinone derivatives on nitric oxide (NO) production by mouse macrophage-like cells Raw 264.7 was investigated in this study.

Cytotoxic activity of azulenequinones against human oral tumor cell lines.

We investigated twenty-seven azulenequinone derivatives for their relative cytotoxicity against three human normal cell lines (HGF, HPC, HPLF) and four human tumor cell lines (HSG, HSC-2, HSC-3, HL-60). Parent 1,5-azulenequinone showed potent and some tumor-specific cytotoxicity. Halogenated derivatives of 1,5- and 1,7-azulenequinone showed potent cytotoxicity, but lower tumor-specific cytotoxicity.