Cytotoxic Triterpenes from Salacia crassifolia and Metabolite Profiling of Celastraceae Species

• Published in: Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 23; no. 6; p. 1494
• Main Authors: Espindola, Laila S, Dusi, Renata G, Demarque, Daniel P, Braz-Filho, Raimundo, Yan, Pengcheng, Bokesch, Heidi R, Gustafson, Kirk R, Beutler, John A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 20.06.2018; MDPI
• Subjects: Antimicrobial agents; Antineoplastic Agents - chemistry; Antineoplastic Agents - isolation & purification; Antineoplastic Agents - metabolism; Antineoplastic Agents - therapeutic use; Bioassays; Bone cancer; Brazilian Cerrado biome; Cancer; Celastraceae; Celastraceae - metabolism; Cell growth; Cell Line, Tumor; Cell Survival - drug effects; Cheiloclinium cognatum; Colorectal cancer; cytotoxic activity; Cytotoxicity; Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor; Ecosystems; Fractionation; Humans; Kidney cancer; Medical research; Melanoma; Metabolites; Metabolomics - methods; Metastasis; NCI-60 cancer cell line; Plant Extracts - chemistry; Plant Roots - chemistry; Plenckia populnea; pristimerin; Salacia - chemistry; Salacia crassifolia; Salacia elliptica; Structure-Activity Relationship; Triterpenes; Triterpenes - chemistry; Triterpenes - isolation & purification; Triterpenes - metabolism; Triterpenes - therapeutic use; Tumor cell lines; Wood; Brazil; Cerrado Biome; Rio de Janeiro Brazil; United States > US; Brazilian Cerrado biome; pristimerin; Celastraceae; Salacia crassifolia; Salacia elliptica; Cheiloclinium cognatum; cytotoxic activity; NCI-60 cancer cell line; Plenckia populnea
• ISSN: 1420-3049; 1420-3049
• DOI: 10.3390/molecules23061494

The new pentacyclic triterpene 11 -hydroxypristimerin ( ), along with the known metabolites pristimerin ( ), 6-oxopristimerol ( ) and vitideasin ( ), were isolated from a root wood extract, following a bioassay-guided fractionation approach. Both the extract and the purified triterpenes displayed pronounced cytotoxic activity against human cancer cell lines. The NCI-60 cell line screen revealed that compound was the most active, with a mean GI of 0.17 μM, while compound had a mean GI of 8.7 μM. A COMPARE analysis of the screening results showed that pristimerin is likely to be the main compound responsible for the cytotoxic activity of the extract (mean GI of 0.3 μg·mL ). A targeted search for pristimerin and related derivatives using LC-MS/MS revealed the presence of pristimerin ( ) and 6-oxopristimerol ( ) in all Celastraceae species examined and in all plant parts tested, while vitideasin ( ) was only detected in the genus .