Longipedlactones K−P
Posted by naturalproductman on December 22, 2009
Han-Dong Sun and co-workers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have recently published in the Journal of Natural Products on the isolation of novel natural pentacyclic products that fall in the triterpene dilactone family of compounds isolated from the stems of Kadsura ananosma. Longipedlactone J (compound 13) was found to have comparable in vitro cytotoxicity towards HL60 acute leukemia cell lines with cis-platin at 2.0 micromolar IC50 (cis platin had 1.7 micromolar).
ILoveChemists said
So I guess the question is: Is this compound as toxic to the patient as cisplatin? Cisplatin acts by binding and crosslinking DNA, which essentially harms all cells, as you can imagine. Ideallly, one day there will be treatments that can target cancer cells specifically. Great blogging, naturalproductman!