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L. Mauiolo et al.
accordance with the ‘rule of five’, several requirements used for
the development of orally bioavailable drug candidates.[17,19]
These rules have been enhanced by other authors with additional
parameters such as the number of rotatable bonds; however, the
original proposal still maintains its validity.[20] In the present
case, all the compounds display similar parameters with respect
to MW and H donor and acceptor numbers. The only exception
is seen in calculated lipophilicity, which is higher for the most
biologically active compounds 5d, 5f, and 5g. Following this
line of reasoning, N,O-nucleosides substituted with N-benzyl
groups and aromatic rings, preferably with thymine as nucleo-
base and displaying calculated lipophilicity values in the range
3.5–4.5 should represent the optimal combination for increased
biological activity. To support this hypothesis, we planned the
synthesis of three new N,O-nucleosides (5i–k) with cLogP
values higher than 3.5 and we extended the number of human
cancer cell lines for biological evaluation with A2780 (cisplatin-
sensitive human ovarian cancer), HCT116 (colon cancer), MDA
(breast cancer), and K562 (human Caucasian chronic myeloge-
nous leukaemia). The related results are collected in the lower
part of Table 2, which includes the biological activities of 5d, 5f,
and 5g with the new cancer lines as well.
logP of substrates 5a–5k was calculated with the ACDlogP
program (SciFinderÒ).
Nitrones 3f–j and vinyl nucleobases 4 were synthesized
according to published procedures.[12,16,21–27] The full charac-
terization of compounds 3f–j can be found in references [16] and
[24–26], and for 5a–e in reference [13].
Synthesis
General Procedure of Synthesis of Compounds 5f–k
The selected nitrone 3 (0.2 mmol) and vinyl nucleobase 4
(0.1 mmol) were ground together in a mortar and further mixed
in a vortexer. The mixture of the two solids was transferred into a
50-mL Pyrex container, which was placed within an unmodified
household microwave oven, at 600-W irradiation power. After
the appropriate time, from 10 to 15 min, the reaction mixture
was dissolved in a minimum quantity of CHCl3 and submitted to
flash chromatographic separation, using variable mixtures of
chloroform and methanol. The excess nitrone was recovered and
can be re-used. The cycloadducts were analysed by HPLC and
1H NMR to establish the diastereoisomeric cis : trans ratio,
which ranges from 80 : 20 to 85 : 15. Yields were calculated
based on isolated compounds.
The presence of nucleobases other than thymine is detri-
mental for cytotoxicity, as demonstrated by the results found
with compound 5f (B ¼ Thy), the half-maximal inhibitory con-
centration (IC50) in the range 25–50 mM, and 5i (B ¼ F-Ura)
IC50 . 100 mM. However, within the set of nucleosides bearing
N-benzyl, thymine, and aromatic substituents, increasing bio-
logical activity was observed for compounds with increased
values of cLogP. The best results in fact, with cytotoxicity
,10–25 mM, were displayed by compounds 5f, 5j, and 5k, all
possessing a cLogP value higher than 4. The position of chlorine
substituents on the aromatic ring, ortho for 5f and para for 5j,
cannot be underestimated because a quite significant decrease of
IC50 was observed with the latter compound in four of the six
cancer lines investigated.
Further purification and separation of the cis cycloadducts
were carried out by semi-preparative HPLC chromatography.
cis-40-Aza-40-(N-benzyl)-30-(2-chlorophenyl)-20,30-
dideoxythymidine 5f
White solid, yield 77 %, mp 148–1498C. Diastereoisomer
cis : trans ratio 80 : 20. dH (500 MHz, CDCl3) 1.80 (d, J 1.1, 3H,
Thy CH3), 2.2 (ddd, J 3.8, 9.4, 13.9, 1H, H2C), 3.51 (ddd, J 7.6,
7.9, 13.9, 1H, H20 C), 3.82 (d, J 14.3, 1H, HBn), 4.08 (d, J 14.3, 1H,
HBn), 4.48 (dd, J 7.9, 9.4, 1H, H3C), 6.06 (dd, J 3.8, 7.6, 1H, H1C),
7.24–7.45 (m, 9H, Ar), 7.55–7.63 (m, 1H, Thy H6), 8.75 (bs, 1H,
NH). dC (500 MHz, CDCl3) 12.54, 46.37, 60.03, 66.08, 83.56,
109.86, 127.41, 127.68, 127.87, 128.54, 128.84, 129.25, 130.10,
133.93, 135.09, 135.76, 136.81, 150.35, 163.96. m/z (electro-
spray ionisation (ESI)-HRMS) calc. for [C21H20ClN3O3 þ H]þ
398.1271; found 398.1264.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we prepared and tested a preliminary library of
N,O-nucleosides that demonstrate the impact of substitution in
the three assessable canonical quadrants of lead antiproliferative
agent compounds 5j and 5k, with a cytotoxic activity in the
range 10–25 mM. To our knowledge, this is the first example of
modified N,O-nucleosides showing such promising inhibitory
activity against different lines of ovarian (SKOV3, A2780) and
colon (SW480, HCT116) carcinoma.
cis-40-Aza-40-(N-benzyl)-30-(2-fluorophenyl)-20,30-
dideoxythymidine 5g
White solid, yield 75 %, mp 176–1778C. Diastereoisomer
cis : trans ratio 85 : 15. dH (500 MHz, CDCl3) 1.81 (d, J 0.76, 3H,
Thy CH3), 2.40 (ddd, J 3.8, 9.8, 13.9, 1H, H2C), 3.34 (dt, J 7.5,
13.9, 1H, H20 C), 3.78 (d, J 14.4, 1H, HBn), 4.05 (d, J 14.4, 1H,
HBn), 4.26 (dd, J 7.6, 9.8,1H, H3C), 6.09 (dd, J 3.8, 7.5, 1H, H1C),
7.04–7.52 (m,10H, Ar þ Thy H6), 8.94 (bs, 1H, NH). dC
(500 MHz, CDCl3) 12.51, 46.25, 59.96, 63.46, 83.45, 109.93,
116.16, 123.97, 124.86, 127.81, 128.29, 128.49, 129.93, 135.99,
136.81, 150.47, 160.12, 162.09, 164.11. m/z (ESI-HRMS) calc.
for [C21H20FN3O3 þ Na]þ 404.1386; found 404.1382.
Experimental
General
Commercial starting materials were used without further puri-
1
fication. Solvents were distilled before use. H and 13C NMR
spectra were recorded at 500 and 125 MHz respectively in
CDCl3 using tetramethylsilane (TMS) as internal standard
(Bruker ACP 500 MHz). Chemical shifts are given in parts per
million and coupling constants in Hertz. High-resolution mass
spectra (HRMS) were acquired on a Q-star pulsar-i (MDS Sciex
Applied Biosystems, Toronto, Canada) equipped with an ion-
spray source at 10000 atomic mass unit (amu) resolution.
GC-MS spectra were carried out on a Shimadzu QP 5000. HPLC
analyses were performed on a Hewlett-Packard 1100 Series,
monitored by a UV detector at 254 nm, using a Jupiter 10 m C-18
(25 cm) column, H2O/MeOH 9 : 1, 4.0 mL minꢁ1. The value of
cis-40-Aza-40-(N-benzyl)-30-(3-pyridyl)-20,30-
dideoxythymidine 5h
White solid, yield 74 %, mp 160–1618C. Diastereoisomer
cis : trans ratio 87 : 13. dH (500 MHz, CDCl3) 1.80 (d, J 0.76, 3H,
Thy CH3), 2.37 (ddd, J 3.1, 9.8, 14.0, 1H, H2C), 3.40 (ddd, J 7.6,
14.0, 1H, H20 C), 3.77 (d, J 13.9, 1H, HBn), 3.97 (dd, J 7.9, 9.8, 1H,
H3C), 4.20 (d, J 13.9, 1H, HBn), 6.03 (dd, J 3.1, 7.6, 1H, H1C),
7.20–7.42 (m, 7H, Ar), 7.68–7.74 (m,1H, Thy H6), 8.58–8.64
(m, 2H, Ar), 9.25 (bs, 1H, NH). dC (500 MHz, CDCl3) 12.56,
48.36, 59.66, 67.95, 83.44, 110.09, 124.04, 127.98, 128.54,