Rational Synthesis and Preliminary Anti-cancer Activities of 18 β -Glycyrrhetinic Acid Derivatives Containing Pyridinecarboxamide

Five novel containing pyridinecarboxamide 18β-glycyrrhetinic acid derivatives have been designed and synthesized following the concept of 'active structural splice'.In vitro studies demonstrated that all derivatives showed strong anti-cancer activities in thiazolylblue (MTT) assay towards Hela cell lines.They were founded to inhibit the Hela cell lines prolifration and induce apoptosis as the lowest IC 50 values was only 0.02 μmol•L -1 .Under the same conditions, these showed lower IC 50 of cells growth than that of cytarabine.All findings supported further optimization efforts based on 18β-glycyrrhetinic acid as a lead compound to develop potential anti-cancer drug candidates.