A series of optical amino acid diosgenyl esters and diosgenyl salicylate conjugates were designed and synthesized to develop new anticancer and anti-inflammatory agents. The analogue 9c that contains an 6-aminohexanoic acid residue at C-3 of diosgenin exhibits higher potency against all three tumor cell lines with IC50 values ranging from 4.7 mu M in C26 cells to 14.6 mu M in Hep G2 cells. In addition, seven of newly synthesized compounds significantly inhibit xylene-induced ear edema and exhibit comparable or better anti-inflammatory activities than those of diosgenin and aspirin. Furthermore, preliminary structure-activity relationship studies demonstrate that diosgenyl salicylate conjugates have stronger anti-inflammatory activities than amino acid diosgenyl esters. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Novel diosgenin–amino acid–benzoic acid mustard trihybrids exert antitumor effects via cell cycle arrest and apoptosis
mitochondrial depolarization, and promote reactiveoxygenspecies generation in T24 cells. Further studies on antitumor mechanism demonstrated that 12e triggered the intrinsic (mitochondrial) and extrinsic (death receptor) apoptoticpathways. More importantly, 12e could inhibit T24 cell proliferation in an in vivo zebrafish xenograft model. Therefore, 12e, as a novel trihybrid with potent cytotoxicity, might
blood clots and nerve damage. To enhance the bioavailability as well as efficacy of diosgenin, eighteen diosgenin-amino acid derivatives were designed and synthesized. The neuroprotective effects of these compounds were evaluated by SH-SY5Y cell line and the biosafety was evaluated by H9c2 cell line. The results displayed that part of the derivatives’ activities (EC50 < 20 μM) were higher than positive