A second-generation ferrocene-iminosugar hybrid with improved fucosidase binding properties.

The synthesis and the biological evaluation of a new ferrocenyl-iminosugar conjugate designed for fucosidase inhibitory and anticancer activity is described. The compound showed strong affinity for fucosidase from bovine kidney (Ki=23 nM) and from Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron (Ki=150 nM), displaying a 10-fold tighter binding affinity for these enzymes than the previous analogs. The interaction pattern that improves binding has been evaluated through structural analysis of the inhibitor-enzyme complex. The ferrocenyl-iminosugar exhibits significant anticancer activity on MDA-MB-231 and SK-MEL28 cell lines at 100 μM.