In vitro antitumor structure-activity relationships of threo/trans/threo mono-tetrahydrofuranic acetogenins: correlations with their inhibition of mitochondrial complex I.

In this study we evaluated a mono-tetrahydrofuranic subgroup of natural acetogenins that had shown in previous enzyme inhibition studies different potency trends compared with the bis-tetrahydrofuranic acetogenin subgroup. The compounds were tested against colon, breast, lung, liver, and ovarian tumor cell lines. A drug-resistant ovarian cell line was also included in the panel. In general the compounds were more potent than doxorubicin. The goal was to determine how well the mitochondrial complex I inhibition correlates with the in vitro antitumor potency of these natural mono-tetrahydrofuranic acetogenins and of some derivatives. The results indicate that both the reduction of the terminal gamma-lactone after its translactonization and the introduction of an hydroxylimine group in the alkyl chain, near the mono-tetrahydrofuranic moiety, increased the antitumor activity, even against the doxorubicin-resistant cell line.