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A series of new quinoline derivatives of ursolic acid were designed and synthesized in an attempt to develop potential anticancer agents. The structures of these compounds were identified by 1 H NMR, 13 C NMR, IR and ESI-MS spectra analysis. The target compounds were evaluated for their in vitro cytotoxicity against three human cancer cell lines (MDA-MB-231, Hela and SMMC-7721). From the results, compounds 3a-d displayed significant antitumor activity against three cancer cell lines. Especially, compound 3b was found to be the most potent derivative with IC 50 values of 0.61±0.07, 0.36±0.05, 12.49±0.08μM against MDA-MB-231, HeLa and SMMC-7721 cells, respectively, stronger than positive control etoposide. Furthermore, the Annexin V-FITC/PI dual staining assay revealed that compound 3b could significantly induce the apoptosis of MDA-MB-231 cells in a dose-dependent manner. The cell cycle analysis also indicated that compound 3b could cause cell cycle arrest of MDA-MB-231 cells at G0/G1 phase., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

A series of new 1H-benzo[d]imidazole derivatives of dehydroabietic acid were designed and synthesized as potent antitumor agents. Structures of the target molecules were characterized using MS, IR, 1 H NMR, 13 C NMR and elemental analyses. In the in vitro cytotoxic assay, most compounds showed significant cytotoxic activities against two hepatocarcinoma cells (SMMC-7721 and HepG2) and reduced cytotoxicity against noncancerous human hepatocyte (LO2). Among them, compound 7b exhibited the best cytotoxicity against SMMC-7721 cells (IC 50 : 0.36±0.13μM), while 7e was most potent to HepG2 cells (IC 50 : 0.12±0.03μM). The cell cycle analysis indicated that compound 7b caused cell cycle arrest of SMMC-7721 cells at G2/M phase. Further, compound 7b also induced the apoptosis of SMMC-7721 cells in Annexin V-APC/7-AAD binding assay., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

A series of new carbazole derivatives of ursolic acid were designed and synthesized in an attempt to develop potent antimicrobial or antitumor agents. Their structures were confirmed by using IR, HRMS and 1 H NMR analysis. All the synthesized compounds were evaluated for their antimicrobial activity against four bacterial and three fungal strains using serial dilution method. Compounds 3a , 3b , 4a , 4b and 5a – f exhibited significant antibacterial activity against at least one tested bacteria with MIC values of 3.9–15.6 μg/ml. In addition, the in vitro cytotoxicity of these compounds were also assayed against two human tumor cell lines (SMMC-7721 and HepG2) using MTT colorimetric method. From the results, compounds 5a – e and 5h displayed pronounced cytotoxic activity with IC 50 values below 10 μM. Specially, compound 5e was found to be the most potent compound with IC 50 values of 1.08 ± 0.22 and 1.26 ± 0.17 μM against SMMC-7721 and HepG2 cells, respectively, comparable to those of doxorubicin. In addition, compound 5e showed reduced cytotoxicity against noncancerous LO2 cells with IC 50 value of 5.75 ± 0.48 μM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]