Design, Synthesis, and Biological Evaluation of Novel Evodiamine Derivatives as Potential Antihepatocellular Carcinoma Agents.
Lei F, Xiong Y, Wang Y, Zhang H, Liang Z, Li J, Feng Y, Hao X, Wang Z.
Evodiamine has many biological activities. Herein, we synthesize 23 disubstituted derivatives of N14-phenyl or the E-ring of evodiamine and conduct systematic structure-activity relationship studies. <i>In vitro</i> antiproliferative activity indicated that compounds <b>F-3</b> and <b>F-4</b> dramatically inhibited the proliferation of Huh7 (IC<sub>50</sub> = 0.05 or 0.04 μM, respectively) and SK-Hep-1 (IC<sub>50</sub> = 0.07 or 0.06 μM, respectively) cells. Furthermore, compounds <b>F-3</b> and <b>F-4</b> could double inhibit topoisomerases I and II, inhibit invasion and migration, block the cell cycle to the G2/M stage, and induce apoptosis as well. Additionally, compounds <b>F-3</b> and <b>F-4</b> could also inhibit the activation of HSC-T6 and reduce the secretion of collagen type I to slow down the progression of liver fibrosis. Most importantly, compound <b>F-4</b> (TGI = 60.36%) inhibited tumor growth more significantly than the positive drug sorafenib. To sum up, compound <b>F-4</b> has excellent potential as a strong candidate for the therapy of hepatocellular carcinoma.