thio-evodiamine (66c) showed excellent in vitro and in vivo antitumor efficacy with good tolerability and low toxicity. Antitumor mechanism and target profiling studies indicate that compound 66c is the first-in-class triple topoisomerase I/topoisomerase II/tubulin inhibitor. Overall, this study provided an effective strategy for natural product-based drug discovery.
A series of compounds bearing 3′,4′,5′-trimethoxy module into the core structure of evodiamine were designed and synthesized. The synthesized compounds were screened in vitro for their antitumor potential. MTT results showed that compounds 14a–14c and 14i–14j had significant effects, with compound 14h being the most prominent, with an IC50 value of 3.3 ± 1.5 μM, which was lower than evodiamine and