Galectin-inhibitory thiodigalactoside ester derivatives have antimigratory effects in cultured lung and prostate cancer cells.
Delaine T, Cumpstey I, Ingrassia L, Le Mercier M, Okechukwu P, Leffler H, Kiss R, Nilsson UJ.
Aromatic 3,3'-diesters of thiodigalactoside were synthesized in a rapid three-step sequence from commercially available thiodigalactoside and evaluated as inhibitors of cancer- and immunity-related galectins. For each of galectins-1, -3, -7, and -9N-terminal domain, aromatic 3,3'-diesters of thiodigalactoside were found to have affinities in the low micromolar range, which represents a 7-70 fold enhancement over thiodigalactoside itself. No significant improvement was found for galectin-8 N-terminal domain. Two of the compounds were selected for testing in cell culture and were shown to have potent antimigratory effects on human PC-3 prostate and human A549 nonsmall-cell lung cancer cells.