Synthesis, Biological Evaluation, and In Silico Studies of Novel Aminated Xanthones as Potential p53-Activating Agents.

A new interesting article has been published in Molecules. 2019 May 22;24(10). pii: E1975. doi: 10.3390/molecules24101975. and titled:

Synthesis, Biological Evaluation, and In Silico Studies of Novel Aminated Xanthones as Potential p53-Activating Agents.

Authors of this article are:

Lemos A, Gomes AS, Loureiro JB, Brandão P, Palmeira A, Pinto MMM, Saraiva L, Sousa ME.

A summary of the article is shown below:

Xanthone scaffold has been regarded as an attractive chemical tool in the search for bioactive molecules with antitumor activity, and in particular two xanthone derivatives, 12-hydroxy-2,2-dimethyl-3,4-dihydro-2H,6H-pyrano [3,2-b]xanthen-6-one (4) and 3,4-dimethoxy-9-oxo-9H-xanthene-1-carbaldehyde (5), were described as a murine double minute 2 (MDM2)-p53 inhibitor and a TAp73 activator, respectively. The xanthone 5 was used as a starting point for the construction of a library of 3,4-dioxygenated xanthones bearing chemical moieties of described MDM2-p53 inhibitors. Eleven aminated xanthones were successfully synthesized and initially screened for their ability to disrupt the MDM2-p53 interaction using a yeast cell-based assay. With this approach, xanthone 37 was identified as a putative p53-activating agent through inhibition of interaction with MDM2. Xanthone 37 inhibited the growth of human colon adenocarcinoma HCT116 cell lines in a p53-dependent manner. The growth inhibitory effect of xanthone 37 was associated with the induction of G1-phase cell cycle arrest and increased protein expression levels of p53 transcriptional targets. These results demonstrated the potential usefulness of coupling amine-containing structural motifs of known MDM2-p53 disruptors into a 3,4-dioxygenated xanthone scaffold in the design of novel and potent p53 activators with antitumor activity and favorable drug-like properties. Moreover, in silico docking studies were performed in order to predict the binding poses and residues involved in the potential MDM2-p53 interaction.

Check out the article’s website on Pubmed for more information:



This article is a good source of information and a good way to become familiar with topics such as: MDM2-p53 interaction; antitumor activity; computational docking; xanthones; yeast-based assays.

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