Publication
Facile Preparation of N-Glycosylated 10-Piperazinyl Artemisinin Derivatives and Evaluation of Their Antimalarial and Cytotoxic Activities
Publisher:
MDPI AG
Date:
13-07-2018
DOI:
10.3390/MOLECULES23071713
Abstract: According to the precepts that C-10 amino-artemisinins display optimum biological activities for the artemisinin drug class, and that attachment of a sugar enhances specificity of drug delivery, polarity and solubility so as to attenuate toxicity, we assessed the effects of attaching sugars to N-4 of the dihydroartemisinin (DHA)-piperazine derivative prepared in one step from DHA and piperazine. N-Glycosylated DHA-piperazine derivatives were obtained according to the Kotchetkov reaction by heating the DHA-piperazine with the sugar in a polar solvent. Structure of the D-glucose derivative is secured by X-ray crystallography. The D-galactose, L-rhamnose and D-xylose derivatives displayed IC50 values of 0.58–0.87 nM against different strains of Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) and selectivity indices (SI) , on average, with respect to the mouse fibroblast WEHI-164 cell line. These activities are higher than those of the amino-artemisinin, artemisone (IC50 0.9–1.1 nM). Notably, the D-glucose, D-maltose and D-ribose derivatives were the most active against the myelogenous leukemia K562 cell line with IC50 values of 0.78–0.87 µM and SI 380 with respect to the human dermal fibroblasts (HDF). In comparison, artemisone has an IC50 of 0.26 µM, and a SI of 88 with the same cell lines. Overall, the N-glycosylated DHA-piperazine derivatives display antimalarial activities that are greatly superior to O-glycosides previously obtained from DHA.