Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Oleanolic Acid Derivatives as Selective Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Promoter i-Motif Ligands

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Lin-Kun An¹  Shuangshuang Kang¹  Yu Zhang¹  Huang Zeng¹  Qian Yu¹  Ke Liu¹  Ding Li¹ 

[1] School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China;

关键词: vascular endothelial growth factor;    oleanolic acid;    i-motif;    gene transcriptional regulation;    antiproliferation;    apoptosis;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms22041711

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is an angiogenic growth factor and plays a key role in tumor progression. The C-rich DNA sequence of VEGF promoter can form i-motif structure, which is a potential target for the development of novel anticancer agents. However, there is a limited number of chemotypes as the selective ligands of VEGF promoter i-motif, which leaves much room for development. Herein, we report the discovery of the natural oleanolic acid scaffold as a novel chemotype for the development of selective ligands of VEGF i-motif. A series of oleanolic acid derivatives as VEGF promoter i-motif ligands were synthesized. Subsequent evaluations showed that 3c could selectively bind to and stabilize VEGF promoter i-motif without significant binding to G-quadruplex, duplex DNA, and other oncogene i-motifs. Cell-based assays indicated that 3c could effectively downregulate VEGF gene transcription and expression in MCF-7 cells, inhibit tumor cells proliferation and migration, and induce cancer cells apoptosis. This work provides evidence of VEGF promoter i-motif as an anticancer target and will facilitate future efforts for the discovery of oleanolic acid-based selective ligands of VEGF promoter i-motif.

【 授权许可】

Unknown