M. Popsavin et al. / Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 22 (2012) 6700–6704
6703
DET assays (for details see Supplementary data). Consistent results
obtained by repeated testing in different assays confirmed the
remarkable growth inhibitory activity of 2 against K562 cells in
our experimental conditions.
Tiazofurin (1) and its analogue 2 were also evaluated against
the following human tumour cell lines: colon adenocarcinoma
HT-29, estrogen receptor positive breast adenocarcinoma MCF-7
and estrogen receptor negative breast adenocarcinoma MDA-MB-
231 (data not shown). It has been found that the parent molecule
1 shows a potent antiproliferative activity with IC50 values in the
two malignant cell lines (K562 and HeLa). Surprisingly, analogue 2
showed a potent antiproliferative activity against both K562 and
HL-60 cells. These results are in contrast with previous findings,8,9
which showed that analogue 2 is inactive against these cell lines. It
was concluded that disagreement of these biological data origi-
nates from differences in experimental conditions used for evalua-
tion of cytotoxic activities. Flow cytometry data suggest that
cytotoxic effects of analogue 2 in K562 might be mediated by apop-
tosis, in opposite to tiazofurin, which did not induce apoptosis of
K562 cells after 24 h, thus suggesting a different mechanism of ac-
tion, most probably through the inhibition of IMPDH.
rage from 0.26 to 1.78 lM. In contrast, the analogue 2 was com-
pletely inactive against these cell lines. The difference in cytotoxic
activity indicates that analogue 2 is not acting at the same biolog-
ical target as tiazofurin (IMPDH). It is possible that the observed
cytotoxicities of 2 originated from its ability to induce the apopto-
sis in target cells. In order to address this hypothesis, we examined
the apoptotic signalling induced by tiazofurin and analogue 2 in
the human K562 malignant cell line. Cells were treated with 1
and 2 for 24 and 72 h, at the IC50 concentrations, then stained with
the components of the Annexin-V-FLUOS Staining Kit and eventu-
ally analyzed by flow cytometry, according to the reported proce-
dure.20 Apoptotic response presented as a percentage of specific
apoptosis (Fig. 2) showed that the tiazofurin analogue 2 after 24
h induced several-fold more Annexin-V positive K562 cells com-
pared to the parent compound 1. As Figure 2 shows, analogue 2
after 72 h induced almost seven-fold more Annexin-V positive
K562 cells compared to tiazofurin (1). Flow cytometry data agreed
well with the results of MTT assay explaining the mechanism of
cytotoxic activity of 2 against the K562 cell line (induction of apop-
tosis). Such a different mechanism of action of 2 with respect to
lead 1 is not entirely unexpected, since it has rather different
molecular geometry with respect to 1, which acts as IMPDH inhib-
itor.21 Further work directed to the elucidation of the pathways
underlying the apoptosis with analogue 2 is ongoing and the re-
sults will be reported elsewhere.
Acknowledgment
Financial support from the Ministry of Education and Science of
the Republic of Serbia (Grant No. 172006) is gratefully
acknowledged.
Supplementary data
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in
08.093. These data include MOL files and InChiKeys of the most
important compounds described in this article.
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+8.8 (c 1.2; CHCl3); 1H NMR (250 MHz,
Figure 2. Percentage of specific apoptosis of K562 cells induced by tiazofurin and
analogue 2 after 24 and 72 h-treatment. Cells were stained with Annexin-V-FLUOS
and propidium iodide and analyzed by flow cytometry. Percentage of specific
apoptosis of tiazofurin (1) and tiazofurin mimetic 2 was calculated according to
reference.22
14. Compound 9: colourless syrup, [a]
D
CDCl3): d 2.15 (s, 3H, MeCO), 4.63 (d, 2H, J5,6 = 5.8 Hz, H-6), 4.77 (m, 1H, H-5),
4.81 (s, 1H, H-2), 5.54 (s, 1H, H-3), 5.83 (d, 1H, J3,4 = 3.5 Hz, H-4), 7.35–8.16 (m,
10H, 2 ꢂ Ph); 13C NMR (62.9 MHz, CDCl3): d 20.4 (CH3CO), 61.7 (C-6), 70.5 (C-
2), 74.8 (C-4), 79.5 (C-3), 80.1 (C-5), 115.8 (CN), 127.9, 128.3, 128.6, 129.1,