Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
Page 6 of 7
This study was supported by grants from the Australian Na-
tional Health and Medical Research Council (1031686 and
1087248).
Taken together, 13b has emerged as the first in a new
class of agents with activity against cancer cells produced
by targeting of the tumor cell mitochondrion and CL de-
pletion. Further studies are now warranted to define the
structural requirements that underlie the anti-cancer ac-
tivity of 13b analogues so that the therapeutic potential of
this novel class of agents may be optimized.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We would like to thank Martin Conolly for his assistance
with the synthetic chemistry, Julie Dwyer and Sarah Cui for
technical assistance, and Prof Christine Clarke, The West-
mead Institute, Westmead Hospital, NSW, Australia, for the
generous gift of MCF10A cells.
CONCLUSION
9
We have developed the first member of a promising
new class of fatty acid-based anticancer agents. The active
analogue 13b depolarised the mitochondrial membrane in
MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells leading to extensive cell
death. After intraperitoneal injection 13b was also effec-
tive in breast cancer cell killing in a mouse xenograft
model.
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ABBREVIATIONS
7AAD, 7-aminoactinomycin; CL, cardiolipin; EET, epoxyeico-
satrienoic acid; ω-3-EEA, sEH, soluble epoxide hydrolase, ω-
3-17,18-epoxyeicosanoic acid; JC-1, 5,5’,6,6’-tetrachloro-
1,1’,3,3’-tetraethylbenzimidazolylcarbocyanine
iodide;
TUNEL, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase nick end la-
beling.
EXPERIMENTAL SECTION
The purity of all test compounds was confirmed to be ≥
95% by elemental analysis.
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ASSOCIATED CONTENT
Supporting Information. Information on general chemis-
try, analytical data for all compounds and methods for cell
culture, cell-based assays, flow cytometry, animal experi-
ments and statistics. This material is available free of charge
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*Dr Tristan Rawling, School of Mathematical and Physical
Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Technology Syd-
ney, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia. Tel: (61-2)-9514-7956,
Email: Tristan.Rawling@uts.edu.au.
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Y.; Lee, K. S. S.; Wettersten, H. I.; Ulu, A.; Hu, X.; Tam, S.; Hwang, S.
H.; Ingham, E. S.; Kieran, M. W.; Weiss, R. H.; Ferrara, K. W.; Ham-
mock, B. D. Epoxy metabolites of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in-
hibit angiogenesis, tumor growth, and metastasis. Proc. Natl. Acad.
Sci. U.S.A. 2013, 110, 6530-6535.
Author Contributions
All authors contributed to manuscript writing and have given
approval to the final version of the manuscript.
11.
Cui, P. H.; Petrovic, N.; Murray, M. The ω-3 epoxide of
eicosapentaenoic acid inhibits endothelial cell proliferation by p38
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Funding Sources
ACS Paragon Plus Environment