Design and synthesis of formononetin-dithiocarbamate hybrids that inhibit growth and migration of PC-3 cells via MAPK/Wnt signaling pathways

  • Eur J Med Chem. 2017 Feb 15:127:87-99. doi: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2016.12.027.
Dong-Jun Fu  1 Li Zhang  1 Jian Song  1 Ruo-Wang Mao  1 Ruo-Han Zhao  1 Ying-Chao Liu  1 Yu-Hui Hou  1 Jia-Huan Li  1 Jia-Jia Yang  1 Cheng-Yun Jin  1 Ping Li  1 Xiao-Lin Zi  2 Hong-Min Liu  1 Sai-Yang Zhang  3 Yan-Bing Zhang  4
Affiliations
  • 1. School of Pharmaceutical Sciences & Collaborative Innovation Center of New Drug Research and Safety Evaluation, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China.
  • 2. Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of California, Irvine, Orange, CA 92868, USA.
  • 3. School of Basic Medical Sciences, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
  • 4. School of Pharmaceutical Sciences & Collaborative Innovation Center of New Drug Research and Safety Evaluation, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
Abstract

A series of novel formononetin-dithiocarbamate derivatives were designed, synthesized and evaluated for antiproliferative activity against three selected Cancer cell line (MGC-803, EC-109, PC-3). The first structure-activity relationship (SAR) for this formononetin-dithiocarbamate scaffold is explored in this report with evaluation of 14 variants of the structural class. Among these analogues, tert-butyl 4-(((3-((3-(4-methoxyphenyl)-4-oxo-4H-chromen-7-yl)oxy)propyl)thio)carbonothioyl)piperazine-1-carboxylate (8i) showed the best inhibitory activity against PC-3 cells (IC50 = 1.97 μM). Cellular mechanism studies elucidated 8i arrests cell cycle at G1 phase and regulates the expression of G1 checkpoint-related proteins in concentration-dependent manners. Furthermore, 8i could inhibit cell growth via MAPK signaling pathway and inhibit migration via Wnt pathway in PC-3 cells.

Keywords
Dithiocarbamate; Formononetin; Growth; Migration.