Structures and cytotoxicity relationship of isoaaptamine and aaptamine derivatives.

A series of 9-O-acylisoaaptamine (3-14) and 4-N-acyl-dihydroaaptamine (16-19) derivatives have been prepared and evaluated for antitumor activity against murine P-388 and human tumor cells including KB16, A549, and HT-29 cell lines. All of compounds showed significant cytotoxicity against P-388 cells. Among them, compounds 9-11 showed potent activity as isoaaptamine (1). There was an apparent lack of linear relationship between cytotoxicity and carbon number of the side chain. The structure and activity relationship for these particular compounds are discussed.