Conjugation of Natural Triterpenic Acids with Delocalized Lipophilic Cations: Selective Targeting Cancer Cell Mitochondria

Currently, a new line of research on mitochondria-targeted anticancer drugs is actively developing in the field of biomedicine and medicinal chemistry. The distinguishing features of this universal target for anticancer agents include presence of mitochondria in the overwhelming majority, if not all types of transformed cells, crucial importance of these cytoplasmic organelles in energy production, regulation of cell death pathways, as well as generation of reactive oxygen species and maintenance of calcium homeostasis. Hence, mitochondriotropic anticancer mitocan agents, acting through mitochondrial destabilization, have good prospects in cancer therapy. Available natural pentacyclic triterpenoids are considered promising scaffolds for development of new mitochondria-targeted anticancer agents. These secondary metabolites affect the mitochondria of tumor cells and initiate formation of reactive oxygen species. The present paper focuses on the latest research outcomes of synthesis and study of cytotoxic activity of conjugates of pentacyclic triterpenoids with some mitochondria-targeted cationic lipophilic molecules and highlights the advantages of applying them as novel mitocan agents compared to their prototype natural triterpenic acids.

• Publication year

  2021

• Venue

  Journal of Personalized Medicine

• Publication date

  2021-05-25

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Chemistry

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.3390/jpm11060470PMID 34070567PMCID 8226687
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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