Synthesis and biological evaluation of caffeic acid derivatives as potent inhibitors of α-MSH-stimulated melanogenesis

  • Bioorg Med Chem Lett. 2017 Aug 1;27(15):3374-3377. doi: 10.1016/j.bmcl.2017.06.011.
Hyeju Jo  1 ,  Minho Choi  1 ,  Jaeuk Sim  1 ,  Mayavan Viji  1 ,  Siyuan Li  1 ,  Young Hee Lee  1 ,  Youngsoo Kim  1 ,  Seung-Yong Seo  2 ,  Yuanyuan Zhou  3 ,  Kiho Lee  3 ,  Wun-Jae Kim  4 ,  Jin Tae Hong  1 ,  Heesoon Lee  1 ,  Jae-Kyung Jung  5
Affiliations
  • 1. College of Pharmacy and Medicinal Research Center (MRC), Chungbuk National University, Cheongju 28160, Republic of Korea.
  • 2. College of Pharmacy and Gachon Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Gachon University, Incheon 21936, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: [email protected].
  • 3. College of Pharmacy, Korea University, Sejong 30019, Republic of Korea.
  • 4. College of Medicines, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju 28644, Republic of Korea.
  • 5. College of Pharmacy and Medicinal Research Center (MRC), Chungbuk National University, Cheongju 28160, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: [email protected].
PMID: 28619537 DOI: 10.1016/j.bmcl.2017.06.011
Abstract

We have disclosed our effort to develop caffeic acid derivatives as potent and non-toxic inhibitors of α-MSH-stimulated melanogenesis to treat pigmentation disorders and skin medication including a cosmetic skin-whitening agent. The SAR studies revealed that cyclohexyl ester and secondary amide derivatives of caffeic acid showed significant inhibitory activities.

Keywords
Caffeamide; Caffeic acid; Melanogenesis; Skin whitening; α-MSH.