Conversions at C-30 of glycyrrhetinic acid and their impact on antitumor activity.

Abstract

The extracts of the roots of licorice have been used in traditional and folk medicine to treat a broad variety of maladies. The main ingredient of these extracts is glycyrrhicinic acid. Its aglycon, glycyrrhetinic acid, has many biological activities, among them a pronounced cytotoxicity against tumor cells. In this study we varied glycyrrhetinic acid at position C-30 to get "simple" derivatives, for example esters, amides and a nitrile. The influence of these changes on the cytotoxic activity is noteworthy and was determined by a colorimetric sulphorhodamine B test using 7 human tumor cell lines and mouse embryonic fibroblasts (NIH3T3) for comparison. A Trypan blue test as well as an acridine orange/ethidium bromide test was used to discover the ability of the compounds to induce apoptosis.

• Authors: René Csuk, Stefan Schwarz, Bianka Siewert, Ralph Kluge, Dieter Ströhl
• Journal: Archiv der Pharmazie (Arch Pharm (Weinheim)) Vol. 345 Issue 3 Pg. 223-30 (Mar 2012) ISSN: 1521-4184 [Electronic] Germany
• PMID: 21997717 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Chemical References

• Antineoplastic Agents
• Rhodamines
• lissamine rhodamine B
• Glycyrrhetinic Acid

Topics

• Animals
• Antineoplastic Agents (chemical synthesis, chemistry, pharmacology)
• Apoptosis (drug effects)
• Cell Line, Tumor
• Colorimetry (methods)
• Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor
• Glycyrrhetinic Acid (chemical synthesis, chemistry, pharmacology)
• Humans
• Medicine, Traditional
• Mice
• NIH 3T3 Cells
• Neoplasms (drug therapy)
• Rhodamines (chemistry)