casticin and Leukemia-P388

Bioassay-guided fractionation of the chloroform-soluble extract of the leaves of Vitex negundo led to the isolation of the known flavone vitexicarpin (1), which exhibited broad cytotoxicity in a human cancer cell line panel. In an attempt to increase the cytotoxic potency of 1, a series of acylation reactions was performed on this compound to obtain its methylated (2), acetylated (3), and six new acylated (4-9) derivatives. Compound 9, the previously unreported 5,3'-dihexanoyloxy-3,6,7,4'-tetramethoxyflavone, showed comparative cytotoxic potency to compound 1 and was selected for further evaluation. However, this compound was found to be inactive when evaluated in the in vivo hollow fiber assay with Lu1, KB, and LNCaP cells at the highest dose (40 mg/kg/body weight) tested, and in the in vivo P-388 leukemia model (135 mg/kg), using the ip administration route.

Topics: Acylation; Animals; Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic; Colonic Neoplasms; Disease Models, Animal; Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor; Flavonoids; Humans; Indonesia; Inhibitory Concentration 50; Leukemia P388; Lung Neoplasms; Male; Methylation; Mice; Molecular Structure; Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular; Plant Leaves; Plants, Medicinal; Prostatic Neoplasms; Tumor Cells, Cultured; Vitex