Discovery of a marine-derived bis-indole alkaloid fascaplysin, as a new class of potent P-glycoprotein inducer and establishment of its structure-activity relationship.

The screening of IIIM natural products repository for P-gp modulatory activity in P-gp over-expressing human adenocarcinoma LS-180 cells led to the identification of 7 natural products viz. withaferin, podophyllotoxin, 3-demethylcolchicine, agnuside, reserpine, seseberecine and fascaplysin as P-gp inducers. Fascaplysin (6a), a marine-derived bis-indole alkaloid, was the most potent among all of them, showing induction of P-gp with EC50 value of 25 nM. P-gp induction is one of the recently targeted strategy to increase amyloid-β clearance from Alzheimer brains. Thus, we pursued a medicinal chemistry of fascaplysin to establish its structure-activity relationship for P-gp induction activity. Four series of analogs viz. substituted quaternary fascaplysin analogs, D-ring opened quaternary analogs, D-ring opened non-quaternary analogs, and β-carbolinium analogs were synthesized and screened for P-gp induction activity. Among the total of 48 analogs screened, only quaternary nitrogen containing analogs 6a-g and 10a, 10h-l displayed promising P-gp induction activity; whereas non-planar non-quaternary analogs 9a-m, 13a-n, 15a-h were devoid of this activity. The P-gp induction activity of best compounds was then confirmed by western-blot analysis, which indicated that fascaplysin (6a) along with 4,5-difluoro analog of fascaplysin 6f and D-ring opened analog 10j displayed 4-8 fold increase in P-gp expression in LS-180 cells at 1 μM. Additionally, compounds 6a and 6f also showed inhibition of acetylcholinestease (AChE), an enzyme responsible for neuronal loss in Alzheimer's disease. Thus, fascaplysin and its analogs showing promising P-gp induction along with AChE inhibition at 1 μM, with good safety window (LS-180: IC50 > 10 μM, hGF: 4 μM), clearly indicates their promise for development as an anti-Alzheimer agent.