Succinamide derivatives of melampomagnolide B and their anti-cancer activities.

A series of succinamide derivatives of melampomagnolide B have been synthesized by coupling MMB monosuccinate (2) with various heterocyclic amines to afford compounds 3a-3l. MMB monosuccinate was also reacted with terminal diaminoalkanes to afford dimeric succinamido analogs of MMB (4a-4h). These succinamide analogs of MMB were evaluated for their anti-cancer activity against a panel of sixty human cancer cell lines. Analogs 3d-3i and dimers 4f-4g exhibited promising anti-cancer activity with GI50 values ranging from 0.28 to 33.5µM against most of the cell lines in the panel. The dimeric analogs 4f and 4g were identified as lead compounds with GI50 values in the nanomolar range (GI50=280-980nM) against several cell lines in the panel; i.e. leukemia cell lines CCRF-CEM, HL-60(TB), K-562, MOLT-4, RPMI-8226 and SR; and solid tumor cell lines NCI-H522 (non-small cell lung cancer), SW-620 and HCT-116 (colon cancer), LOX IMVI (melanoma), RXF 393 (renal cancer), and MCF7, BT-549 and MDA-MB-468 (breast cancer). Succinamide analogs 3a, 3c-3l and 4b-4h were also evaluated for their apoptotic activity against M9-ENL1 acute myelogenous leukemia cells; compounds 3h-3j and 4g were equipotent with parthenolide, exhibiting LC50 values in the range 4.1-8.1μM. Molecular docking studies indicate that these molecules interact covalently with the highly conserved Cys-46 residue of the N-terminal lobe (1-109) of human IKKβ to inhibit the NFκB transcription factor complex, resulting in down-regulation of anti-apoptotic genes under NFκB control.