2. Academic Validation
  3. Divergent reactivity of usnic acid and evaluation of its derivatives for antiproliferative activity against cancer cells

Divergent reactivity of usnic acid and evaluation of its derivatives for antiproliferative activity against cancer cells

  • Bioorg Med Chem. 2023 Feb 1:79:117157. doi: 10.1016/j.bmc.2023.117157.
Gregory A Gunawan 1,  Mariola Gimła 2,  Michael G Gardiner 1,  Anna Herman-Antosiewicz 2,  Tristan A Reekie 3
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University, 2600 Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
  • 2 University of Gdańsk, Faculty of Biology, Department of Medical Biology and Genetics, 80-308 Gdańsk, Poland.
  • 3 Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University, 2600 Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia; School of Science, University of New South Wales Canberra, 2600 Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Electronic address: t.reekie@adfa.edu.au.
PMID: 36652792 DOI: 10.1016/j.bmc.2023.117157
Abstract

Natural Products continue to be an inspiration for new drugs to treat debilitating diseases such as Cancer. Usnic acid is a secondary metabolite isolated predominately from Lichen species and has been shown to exhibit antiproliferative properties, however its application is limited by poor drug-like properties and low specificity. We report our work on investigating the reactivity of usnic acid for incorporating heterocyclic rings and the divergent reactivity that can be obtained by simply altering the reaction solvent and temperature. The synthesised derivatives were then tested against HeLa Cancer cells for their antiproliferative properties. A number of promising compounds were obtained including 4, 5 and 9 that showed an IC50 of 878, 311 and 116 nM, respectively, against HeLa Cancer cells after 48 h of treatment.

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